» ^ V 



A. •" 



.. J** 



,0 "%. %* *?• «> 



v *o 



iP**. 



=. **tt;-* ^ ^*»^T' ,*♦ 'b •^•\*°* .... , v»~»' a* t "°*. 









<> "o • » * .G 1 









?*' ^ • 



^cr 









V* • 






9 ••^L% *> 









,<*> ,1.1, V. * tt o«.„ ^ 



•* 



* 






: v oi? .: 



+*o* 



»a •*y«* a. V ••rs* <<r °* ••»'• «P %. *«t»' <r °* 



£ 



<> '•■ 



*" .•".•.. ** 



fr" ♦♦"** 'OT^* /\ -J^R-" « 



L* V .. 






*- ^0« 






^ v *•«•" A * 






5V C 7 ♦ 






■: j>"^ •: 



.^Lt °o /\'i^-\ c *.^Lt*°o 4*\tife.\ /.; 



j- u ^ 



r \'^'\? y "v^v* %/^"V* "V* 1 



^ 



V^ 1 






V^ 1 

5> ^v . 













^d* ! 



;??rfs *> v'-^-.y °o^^ffyj> v-i^\y 






;. X/ /J«fe'- Vc** .-isa(^. w :■ 



o %* 



\- ?°+ 






• ^°- 



<P #> v-^-y v™>°' V^'V' V™V 

°''°.V.G^ "\.*^^\<V* ^''-fS^A* "V**^^*^* V**-.\1 









4c 



V . * • 









"off 



^ < - 






..♦ o 















-•- ^ c**' .* 






$0\ 










^ * . . o • V^ 



'.• ^°- 



T • °, c* 



r ^V 



TTbe lpmbltc Servant 

"There can be no higher ambition than that of serving the state, nothing more creditable than to serve it well." 



Number 1 
Feb. 1916 



Issued IVIonthly by the 

Society for the Promotion of Training for Public Service 

Madison, Wisconsin 



Price 
25 cents 



Application for entry as second r!s> at Madison, Wisconsin pending 



The Shadow and The Substance 

T. l\2 
he ^rantin^ of academic credit is undoubt- 
edly a serious matter and must be closely 
controlled, but it is fundamental to any 
real advance in training for public service. 
That it can be done without impairment of 
academic standards I have no doubt. This 
point I will not ar^ue now, but I will illustrate 
it by reference to a recent conference with a 
professor in one of our lar^e universities, who 
refused to consider credit for a piece of work of 
investigation and reporting done in one of our 
city departments by a capable student. The 
professor admitted that he would credit toward 
the decree a report by one of his students based 
on the printed report of my student, but flatly 
declared that it would not be proper for the 
investigator to receive university credit for his 
work. Fortunately this is not the attitude of 
most live college instructors and I think we 
shall have no difficulty in securing academic 
recognition for field work, if we can show that 
the control over it is such as to guarantee its 
solid character. — Gharles A. Beard 



THE PUBLIC SERVANT 



[Feb. 



Gbe public Servant 

EDWARD A. FITZPATRICK, Editor 
Issued Monthly by the 




'»/3 ~ ,*4° 

Madison, Wis. 



Board of Trustees 

Charles McCarthy Madison, Wis. 

William Thum Pasadena, Cal. 

Winston, Churchill, Cornish, N. H. 

Clarence G. McDavitt Boston, Mass. 

Will C. Hogg Houston, Texas 

Zona Gale, Portage, Wis. 

Neil Gray, Jr. Oswego, N. Y. 

John S. Murdock, .... Providence, R. I. 

Parke R. Kolbe Akron, Ohio 

Charles M. Fassett, Spokane, Wash. 



Director 



Edward A. Fitzparick 



Madison, Wis. 



We are in the propaganda stage of 
the movement for training for public 
service. Much of the discussion is 
therefore of the hip-hip-hurrah type: 
much of it speaks of the hopes for the 
movement as accomplishments; much of 
it just keeps the pot a-boiling. But 
there are signs of our passing to the 
constructive phase. Professor Beard's 
paper before the Association of Urban 
Universities is a sign, as was his report 
as chairman of the committee appointed 
by President Butler. Another is the 
specific proposal of Professor James 
recently published by the University of 
Texas. Other signs are the appoint- 
ment of committees of university 
faculties at the University of Minnesota, 
(Prof. Schaper, Chairman), at the 
College of the City of New York (Prof. 
Breithut, Chairman) and at the Uni- 
versity of Illinois, (Prof. John A. Fair- 
lie). Still another sign is the courses 
in municipal administration announced 
last year by the University of Michigan. 
We are, however, only at the entrance 
to the road. Though the road is Jong, 
the way is pleasant. 



The possible organization of technical 
high schools for practical training in 
public service and in industry is outlined 
concretely in William Thum's "A 
Forward Step." The subtitle adds 
"for the democracy of to-morrow." 
The high schools are being criticized 
from all sides — but most of the criticism 
is merely destructive. In this book is 
outlined a constructive plan. It is a 
workable plan. Its social, economic 
and educational possibilities are tre- 
mendous. It makes possible an "high 
school education for all the people." 
It is a continuing education. We urge 
high school administrators and all 
interested in the reconstruction of high 
schools to read it. Yes, it was published 
in 1910. What of that? It is therefore 
six years nearer to its realization. 

The plan of Mr. Thum's book is very 
similar to the "cooperative" plan so 
admirably worked out by Dean Herman 
Schneider at the University of Cin- 
cinnati. We shall hear more of Dean 
Schneider's work in these pages. 



The Third National Conference 
on Universities and Public Service 

will be held in New York or Philadelphia 
in November, 1916. It will be our 
object to set the specific dates so that 
persons going to the meeting of Asso- 
ciation of Urban Associations may 
combine both meetings on one trip. 
And if it is possible — ditto National 
Association of State Universities and 
Association of American Universities. 



The Public Servant will devote an 
issue entirely to "Women and the 
Public Service." Suggestions will be 
welcome. Also brief contributions on 
any vital phase of the subject. 



The College of the City of New York 
is now giving "special courses in the 
evening session for municipal employes 
designed to improve the efficiency 

of civil service." 

{Continued on page fifteen) 



cam 

JUL 21 1916 



1916] A NATIONAL PROGRAM 






A National Program 

~Pg ' for 

Training For Public Service 

by tne Editor 

Training for public service is a social and governmental problem 
of national proportions. Practically every force working for a 
better government and better social conditions can help in many 
ways. A few suggestions for some of these forces are given below, 
in a first effort to outline a national program for training for public 
service. 

I. Alumni Association of Universities: 

1. Suggest to the classes that they make gifts to their Alma 

Mater on certain anniversaries of their graduation for 
the specific purpose of endowing a training school for 
public service. Make contributions cumulative until a 
sufficient endowment is received. 

2. Appoint a special or standing committee of the association 

to make possible early provision for training for public 
service. 

(1) To stimulate cooperation of the university with 

the community; 

(2) To study the question in detail with reference to 

their Alma Mater; 

(3) To stimulate gifts to the university for this 

specific subject, and 

(4) To utilize to the fullest extent the information and 

service of the Society for the Promotion of 
Training for Public Service. 

3. Select alumni trustees who are genuinely interested in 

training for public service and in university cooperation. 

II. Boards of Trustees of Universities: 

1. Ask president for report on present situation. 

2. Ask for statement of what other universities are doing 

and planning. 

3. Ask for a five year program for your institution. 

4. Plan next steps. 



4 THE PUBLIC SERVANT [Feb. 

5. Emphasize in the president's selection of professors in 

political science, field experience and things done. 

6. Pass resolution offering expert service of faculty to aid 

local communities in their work — without too great a 
disturbance of university work. 

7. Establish lectures and foundations for the promotion of 

training for public service similar to those now estab- 
lished in many of the leading universities. 

III. Universities: 

1. Give credit for field work toward advanced degress. 

2. Require practical or clinical experience for all profes- 

sional degrees. 

3. Stimulate supervised coordinated field training in all pro- 

fessional education. 

4. Contribute a small sum annually to the maintenance of a 

clearing house of information on all subjects relating 
to training for public service. The functions which this 
clearing house would perform are: 

(1) Collect currently from periodical literature — 
American, European, Australian — all references 
to public service training. 

(2) Make special reports on experiments in this 

country. 

(3) Through cooperating members suggest plans, 

revise plans. 

(4) Reprint noteworthy material. 

4. Adopt any of the following suggestions for promoting 
training for public service in universities. 

(1) Reorganization of academic course. 

(2) Modify requirements for Ph. D. 

(3) Training school for public service. 

(4) Graduate school of public administration. 

(5) Institute of governmental and social research. 

(6) Give professors sabbatical years for field train- 

ing whenever proper opportunity offers. 

IV. Departments of Education in Universities — and particulary the 
New Department of Educational Sociology: 

1. Select subjects for doctors' dissertations from the fol- 
lowing subjects. 

(1) Educational aspects of civil service. 



1916] A NATIONAL PROGRAM 5 

(2) Critique of civil service methods of examina- 

tion. 

(3) Training civil service employees in service. 

(4) Critical examination of European experience 

(based on field study). 

(5) Methods of public education (particularly 

with reference to a social program). 

(6) The educational aspects of a political com- 

paign (a study in educational sociology). 

(7) Methods of political education. 

(8) Theory and practice in professional education. 

(9) The university (or college or high school) cur- 

riculum in its relation to contemporary life, 
but particularly to local life. 

(10) Part time education. 

(11) The educational system of the army. 

(12) The educational system of the navy. 

(13) The present status of training for public 

service. 

2. Establish cooperation with civil service commissions. 

(1) By taking their problems into the university 

classroom for study. 

(2) By assigning graduate students to give whole 

or part of their time for definite periods to 
the civil service commission. 

3. Work out systematic ways of cooperation between the 

university and the public service. 

V. Departments or Economics in Universities: 

1. Study public employment with the same zeal and care 
that private employment is studied as to pay, hours, 
efficiency, organization of employees, control, etc. 

VI. Unite J States Bureau of Census: 

1. Make a special study of public employment in connection 
with its volume on occupations. 

V II. Student advisors in Universities: 

Advisors to women. 
Deans of women (men). 
Employment committees. 

1. Make cooperative study of public service demands. 



6 THE PUBLIC SERVANT [Feb. 

2. Vocational guidance to students on basis of study out- 

lined above. 

3. Establish inter-university clearing house of informa- 

tion. 

VIII. Civil Service Commissions: 

1. A specific definition of positions that will serve as a 

basis for educational training in high schools and 
colleges. 

2. Preparation of civil service primer for use in schools, 

emphasizing: 

(1) The importance of administration. 

(2) The need of the trained man. 

(3) Methods of selecting the trained man. 

(4) Civil service regulations. 

3. Propaganda to include discussion in all courses in civics 

or government in schools. 

4. Secure cooperation with state and city superintendents 

and other educational officers. 

5. Develop the technique for examining experts to command 

respect of best trained men. 

6. Emphasize importance of educational training and 

"educational experience," and stimulate through 
credit in examinations. 

7. Remove or recommend the removal of the local residence 

requirement for public service. 

IX. City Clubs and Otner Civic Organizations: 

1 . Reinforce the civil service program. 

(1) Remove the local residence requirement for 

public office. 

(2) Secure a better classification of civil service. 

(3) Urge a better method of selecting men. 

a. Better type of questions. 

b. More emphasis on past experience. 

c. Accept educational training in lieu of 

tests, with proper safeguards. 

d. More practical examinations — e.g., demon- 

onstrations. 

e. Testing of the newer methods of examina- 

tion — e.g., the unassembled examina- 
tion — formal theses. 



1916] A NATIONAL PROGRAM 7 

2. Put up to local educational institutions as far as possible, 

problems needing scientific research and expert opinion. 

3. Ask questions about relation of local educational system 

to public service. 

(1) High schools? 

(2) Colleges? 

(3) Universities? 

4. Invite speakers to discuss the subject. 

5. Include in your bulletins notice of forward steps. 

X. Library of Congress (particularly Division of Bibliography): 

1. Publish annually the lists formerly prepared by the New 

York State Library (last list 1908)— on: 

(1) Officers department. 

(2) Officers and departments created, abolished or 

reorganized. 

(3) Temporary board of officers. 

(4) Special investigations. 

(5) State institutions 

2. Prepare and keep up to date bibliographies on: 

(1) Present facilities for training men for public 

service. 

(2) Public service as a career. 

(3) Public service activities of universities. 

(4) Administrative reform. 

XL Municipal reference libraries: 

1. Make studies of administration in cooperation with 

officials or through officials. 

2. Call attention of officials to administrative reconstruc- 

tion going on in other places. 

3. Keep lists of men who have rendered distinctive service 

in a particular field. 

4. Establish a bureau of research in connection with the 

library. 

XII. Library Schools: 

1. Theses for graduating should be assigned from the 

foregoing list. 

2. Emphasis, in training municipal reference librarians, on 

administration in all its aspects. 

3. Emphasis, in training legislative reference librarians, on 

administration and machinery of law enforcement. 

4. Greater emphasis, in training librarians, on field training. 



8 THE PUBLIC SERVANT [Feb. 

XIII. United States Bureau or Education: 

1 . Encourage practical training through : 

(1) Bulletins. 

a. Secure authentic reports as to methods of 

training men for public service in 
Europe. 

b. Describe critically and in detail such for- 

ward steps as the Cincinnati cooperative 
part-time system. 

(2) Higher Education Letters as at present. 

XIV. Association or American Universities: 

Association of State Universities. 

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. 

1. Begin a series of studies on: 

(1) The fellowship system in American universities. 

(2) The effect on teaching of the public service 

activities of universities. 
(3 J The effect on teaching of sabbatical years. 

(4) The advisability of giving professors in the 

social sciences every other year or every 
fourth year off for services in government or 
in his special field of work. 

(5) Present possibilities of field training in uni- 

versities. 

(6) Reorganization of academic curriculum — by 

subjects — by individual courses — by inte- 
grated courses. 

(7) Public service aspects of professional edu- 

cation, law, medicine, engineering. 

2. Cooperation with all agencies working on the job. 

XV. General Education Board 

Carnegie Instituion of New York. 
Wealthy men everywhere. 

1. Stimulate university interest in training for public 
service by contributions to an endowment for a 
training school for public service based on the follow- 
ing conditions only: 

(1) That for the first five years at least, no part of 
the endowment or funds shall be spent for 
a building. 



1916] A NATIONAL PROGRAM 9 

(2) That for its first five years, at least, this 

institution shall confine itself solely to 
training for the municipal (or state or 
national) service. 

(3) That supervised and coordinated field training 

shall be as important as the academic work. 

(4) That the faculty shall be subject to the call 

of the community for expert or scientific 
work. 

(5) That supplementary training will be made 

available to men now in the public service. 

2. Contribute specifically for next step in universities 

where first steps have been efficiently and economi- 
cally carried through. 

3. Use part of the fund for Research in Governmental 

Problems: part of the fund for educational enquiry 
for investigating: 

(1) Methods of training for public service. 

(2) Advertised accomplishments. 

(3) Organization of training for public service. 

(4) Welfare program for public officials; old-age 
pensions, sickness insurance, etc. 

XVI. Societies for the Promotion of Professional Education: 

1. Devote at least one session at annual or other meetings 

to: 

(1) Public relations of profession. 

(2) Training for Public Service. 

2. Devote space in publications, to public service 

(1) A regular section. 

(2) Invite special articles. 

3. Re-examine the present curriculum in leading insti- 

tutions with special reference to: 

(1) Non-technical elements. 

a. Government relations in course of study. 

b. Community relations in course of study. 

c. Business organization and administration. 

(2) Technical elements. 

(3) Practical training. 

a. Coordination with school work. 

4. Coordinate all efforts making for better socialized 

professional training. 

5. Word a "code of ethics" for the professional practitioner 

in the public service. 



10 THE PUBLIC SERVANT [Feb. 



The Local Residence Requirement for Public Office 

By CLYDE LYNDON KING 

Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania 

The local residence requirement for public office 

(1) Tends to perpetuate mediocre technical and expert service. 

(2) Means the continuation of party spoils. 

(3) Makes impossible adequate training for all experts and 

(4) A national supply of experts, and 

(5) Is therefore, one of the biggest obstacles to the American 

ideal of an efficient democracy. 
These statements may seem overstated, for sake of emphasis. 
Let us examine them and see. We will limit our inquiry to the policy 
determining experts who set the tone for the entire corps of the 
city's employees. 

The local residence requirement means mediocre technical 
and expert service 

There is needed an inspector of gas in a large city at a salary of 
85,000 per year. The tide of provincialism in this particular city 
runs strong. "Aliens" are not wanted. Therefore, by law or by 
decree of the Civil Service Commission, applicants for the position 
are limited to those who are residents of the city. 

The position requires integrity and willingness to put the public 
weal first. There are ten applicants, of whom five pass the examina- 
tion. Of these five, two have been sent in by the gas company. 
One is a ward worker who has crammed up for the examination, 
and barely passes it, but passes high on "personality and tact," 
which counted 4 out of the 10 points. A fourth is a clerk in the 
present bureau, a man who passed low on the "personality and tact" 
test, but who was sufficiently immersed in office procedure to pass 
his other tests with high percentages. A fifth is a -graduate of an 
engineering school in a nearby university, endowments to which 
are being expectantly awaited. This particular, graduate the faculty 
had not thought sufficiently capable to warrant a recommendation for 
private employment. Moreover, his family connections and his 
aspirations are such as to make him very amenable to "social 
pressure" from the gas office. 

One of the live must be chosen. Which is the best choice? Is it 
not the ward worker? 



1916] LOCAL RESIDENCE REQUIREMENTS 11 

A similar examination is given in another city for an identical 
position. The examination this time is open to all without residence 
restrictions. Again there are five successful applicants. One is a 
local politician who in his oral examination assures the examiners 
that he can do any "organizing" work among the voters the co- 
administration may wish him to do. His technical qualifications 
are just sufficient to let him pass. A second is a resident of the city, 
and once an instructor in chemistry in a nearby university. His 
technical qualifications are high. He sends word to the appointing 
authority that councils are "with him." The character of the 
councils is such as to make it sure that this means inimical pressure 
from the gas company. A third is a highly qualified non-resident 
expert from a nearby gas company, who says in his written examina- 
tion, that utility questions are to be solved solely by conference 
with the president of the home gas company. A fourth is a resident 
graduate from a high-grade engineering school. The tests assure 
him to be capable and fearless. A fifth has served the public most 
acceptably in a similar position in a larger city at a salary of 83,500. 
He has excellent technical preparation, knows how to deal with the 
public, and his ideals as a public servant have been well tested. 

Now which of the five should be appointed? Is it not the experi- 
enced expert? 

But, you say, these are extreme cases. Quite to the contrary, they 
are taken almost word for word from official records and are typical 
of what is going on day after day in American municipalities. 

The number of qualified men free to take such a position are 
sufficiently limited in the United States. It stands to reason that 
the possibilities of a good choice are all the fewer when applicants 
are limited to their home towns. The residence limitation assures 
mediocrity in public office; the removal of the residence limitation 
gives opportunity for the prepared expert who wishes to be a public 
servant. 

The continuation or party spoils 

The local residence requirement means the continuation of party 
spoils. Why? Because when the choice is limited to mediocrity in 
technical preparation, the wisest choice is the politician; for other 
politicians "higher up" will then be held to account for what this 
politician does. The forces determining the responsiveness of this 
official to public needs will be either political contributions from the 
gas company or reasonable standards of public lighting and qualities 
of gas acceptable to the voters, and the latter, sooner or later, be- 
comes the determining factor. Nothing is so hopeless as the city 



12 THE PUBLIC SERVANT [Feb. 

employe who is an "expert" when the city "politicians want to justify 
his retention, and a "me too" when orders are given. 

Local residence requirements mean the continuation of party 
spoils because party spoils are to be preferred to the alternative of 
irresponsible ill prepared employees. 

The local residence requirement means inadequate training 
for all experts 

If the mediocre is to be chosen and the party favorite selected 
from the mediocres, why, pray, should there be any special training 
for public service? 

But even assuming that only the best qualified are appointed, why 
should anyone take the time to train for the policy-determining ex- 
pert positions which set the tone to city administrations and the 
salaries for which warrant preparation? Why prepare for the po- 
sition of assistant city solicitor, or chief clerk in the department of 
public works, or market clerk, or engineer in the transit depart- 
ment, if you cannot look for continuous employment in governmental 
service elsewhere? The fact that governmental work cannot be a 
profession is one of the greatest possible handicaps to governmental 
efficiency. Who will be so shortsighted as to train himself for a 
given life work when the only position available therein is a certain 
expert position in his home town? And what university will 
think of offering the training needed for special public work under 
such restrictions? 

If we had consciously set about to make government inept and 
mediocre no surer means could have been chosen then to limit 
applicants to their home towns. 

A national supply of experts is impossible under the local 
residence requirements 

There are many urgent reasons why there should be no residence 
limitations upon engineers, bureau chiefs and all those in expert 
service. One of these is that the opposition to "aliens" is based 
primarily on the knowledge that the local expert is amenable to 
social and economic pressure that will tend to make him "safe and 
sane," in other words, dishonest. And if faith in the expert is to 
develop, all taint of dishonesty or amenability to "pressure" must 
be eliminated. How many cases could be cited of virile and honest 
criticisms of public utilities, say, coming from the high 1 }' qualified 
within a city? The number is few indeed. Moreover the honesty, 
efficiency and competent standards of experts will best be furthered 



1916\ LOCAL RESIDENCE REQUIREMENT 13 

by the creation of a national supply of such experts to the end that 
evidence of "taint" will reflect on the expert's standing among his 
associates. This is a factor of no small importance in developing a 
class of experts in whom the public can have a righteous faith. If 
the sciences involved are to be developed opportunities must be 
nation-wide. 

An obstacle to efficient democracy 

And if these objections to the local residence requirement are true, 
or even approximately true, the ideal of efficient democracy remains 
an idle dream. 

The essentials to competency in governmental work are four: (1) 
scientific selection of the w T orker; (2) training of the worker for his 
job; (3) the inculcation of the ethical standards requisite for public 
office; (4) the continuance in office of the highly trained in order to 
avoid the expense, delay and waste due to frequent training of 
experts. 

Every one of these essentials is impossible under local residence 
requirements. 

How it is done in Germany 

In making appointments the magistracy of the German city is 
left with a wide latitude of choice with no restrictions as to local 
residence. The only restrictions are those imposed by the national 
laws requiring technical qualifications for given positions. 

The usual course in case of vacancies is for the administrative 
board to advertise the fact that applications for appointment to a 
stated office will be received and considered. The advertisement 
usually states the amount of salary offered, the provisions in regard 
to pension, the duties to be performed and the qualifications ex- 
pected. These qualifications never include local residence. Adver- 
tisements are made for all the leading positions, including the 
Burgomeister. A typical advertisement runs as follows: 

"NOTICE 

"The post of Synidkus in the Magistrat of this city has become vacant. The 
stipend is 6000 marks per year with an increase of 600 marks every three years 
until the maximum of 9000 marks is reached. The appointment is for life; and 
provision is made for a pension on retirement after long service, as well as for the 
granting of an annuity to the widow or orphans of a deceased incumbent of the 
post. The Syndikus is expected to preside in the Industrial and Mercantile Court 
(Gewerbe-und Kaufmannsgericht) and is intrusted with a general supervision 
over the legal affairs of the city. Candidates who have passed their second legal 
examination and who have had successful administrative experience are requested 



14 THE PUBLIC SERVANT [Feb. 

to submit applications accompanied by testimonials and other suitable documents 
to the city clerk before August 20. 
"Frankfort-on-the Main, 

July 17, 1906. "THE MAGISTRATE 

How it is done in England 

In England where the qualifications demanded are equally high, 
the council usually authorizes the town clerk to announce, either 
through the local newspaper or otherwise, that applications for 
appointment to a stated position will be entertained. All positions 
are open to the competent regardless of residence. Not only is there 
no local residence requirement but the city council advertises for 
applicants and invites the competent everywhere to try for the posi- 
tion. Thus in twelve issues of the Municipal Journal, the leading 
municipal paper in England, there were 485 advertisements for posi- 
tions to be filled. A typical advertisement, taken from the Municipal 
Journal, is as follows: 

"The Council invite applications for the office of MEDICAL OFFICER OF 
HEALTH, and SCHOOL MEDICAL OFFICER, for the Urban District of 
Tottenham, from legally qualified and registered Medical Practitioners as required 
by the Local Government Act, 1888. 

"Salary L 600 per annum, apportioned as follows: 

As Medical Officer of Health and School Medical Officer, super- 
vising arrangements for the Medical Inspection of School 
children L 500 

As School Medical Officer, actually inspecting scholars L 100 



L 600 



Does any one believe for a moment that there is not a close rela- 
tion between the efficient government of German cities and the 
careful government of English cities and the nation-wide appeal for 
applicants regardless of local residence requirements? 

The "is" an J "ought" m America 

Even assuming that the relation of the local residence require- 
ment to mediocre service in a spoils system is not so immediate or 
direct as here outlined, is not the relation so evident as to justify 
its abolition? For who profits by its maintenance? Certainly not 
the citizen who wants 100 cents in service for every dollar in taxes. 
Certainly net the public official who wants a high grade administra- 
tion. Certainly not the employee who wants to make a profession 
of his life work. Those only profit who want the spoils and whose 
"interests" require a "control" over the expert in office. 



1916] 



LOCAL RESIDENCE REQUIREMENT 



15 



For the abolition of the local residence requirement does not mean 
that all or even a great portion of the city's policy-determining expert 
positions go to those not residents of the city. It only means that 
the best available talent will be secured for a given position. If the 
position is such as to require a knowledge of local conditions this 
knowledge can be tested in the examination. But why deprive a 
city of the best available talent, why deprive the nation of a supply 
of experts, why deprive the employee of the desire to grow into larger 
positions when there is no necessary relation between residence and 
the service wanted? 

The abolition of the local residence requirement means to move 
from provincialism into worthy public service. 



(Continued from page two) 



"What a mighty force for good 
government," said President Howard 
A. Hanson of the Washington League of 
Municipalities in his annual address, 
'"What a mighty force for good govern- 
ment our university, state school of 
science, and hi'gh-schools can become 
in a practical way by giving young 
men and women the point of view, the 
kind of information or the training 
which prepares them for municipal 
service." We urge Mr. Hanson and the 
Washington League of Municipalities 
and other similar forward-looking indi- 
viduals and organizations to help us 
change the "can become" into an "are." 

Secretary Herman A. Brauer in his 
annual report to the Washington League 
seemed to think— said so, in fact — that 
preparatory training for similar positions 
in "private business and public service" 
should be similar. Not yet! And not 
until private business really becomes a 
public service — saturated with a social 
point of view and administered pri- 
marily for the interest of the served — 
and not the stockholders or those who 
are exploiting both the served and the 
stockholders. Ask Mr. Mellen of the 
New Haven! Look up the report of 
the Thompson Committee of New York 
on the activities of the Interborough 
Railroad! No! Training for public 
service in the public interest requires 
in these clays a different spirit, method, 



viewpoint and content than training 
for private business. In the millennium 
the training will be identical. 



"School and Society" will publish 
soon the following addresses delivered 
at the Second National Conference on 
Universities and Public Service: "Should 
Universities Organize Institutes of Politi 
cal Research on the Plan of the Mellon 
Institute of Industrial Research?" by 
Chancellor Samuel B. McCormick of 
the University of Pittsburgh; "In 
What Ways can (do) Alumni Influence 
University Policy?" by Richard Lloyd 
Jones, President Board of Visitors, 
University of Wisconsin; "The Work 
of the Alumni Association of the Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology" by 
Jasper Whiting, President Alumni Asso- 
ciation, Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology; "How Can Class Gifts to 
Universities be Made to Emphasize the 
Social Function of the University and 
to Stimulate Training for Public Serv- 
ice" by Frederick W. Hamilton, State 
Board of Education, Massachusetts. 
By arrangement with the "School and 
Society" copies of this issue will go to 
the members of the Society at the 
expense of the Society. 



We shall have soon a chamber of 
commerce number which you will 
want to see — particularly you, Mr. 
Secretary. 



Society for the Promotion of 
Training for Public Service 

A National Civic Organization 



Its Program 



Improvement of public administration. 

Making public service a profession. 

Practical training for public service. 

Harnessing civil service reform to an educational program. 

Widest community service of our educational institutions. 

More agencies of accurate public information. 

More effective civic organizations. 

Extension of the part-time principle in education. 

Removing local residence requirement for public service. 

Welfare work for public employees. 



Its Methods 

Publicity — a monthly bulletin. 
Personal assistance. 

Research and constructive investigations. 
The Bureau of Information. 
The Drafting Bureau for Social Legislation. 
The National Conference on Universities and Public 
Service. 

Your Cooperation is Desired 

Fill in the following form: 



S. P. T. P. S. 
Box 380, 

Madison, Wis. 

Enclosed please find $ for which enroll me as a 

member of the S. P. T. P. S.for the year ending December, 1916. Please send 
me The Public Servant regularly. 



Name 



Address. 



Associate membership $3.00 a year. 
Active membership $5.00 " 
Contributing " 10.00 

Donors " 100.00 " 

Founders 1000.00 or more. 



tTbe 




blic Servant 



"There can be no higher ambition than that of serving the state, nothing more creditable than to serve it well." 



Number 2 
March 1916 



Issued Monthly except July and August, by the 

Society for the Promotion of Training for Public Service 

Madison, Wisconsin 



This issue 
25 cents 



Training in the Public Service. 
For Wkat? 



"PRESIDENT WILSON on February 15 signed the 
-*- bill for a reorganization of the working force in 
the patent office, by means of which Patent Com- 
missioner Thomas Ewing expects to increase greatly 
the efficiency of his staff, by encouraging competent ex- 
aminers to remain longer in the government service. 
It has been a matter of common knowledge that for years 
the patent office has been a sort of government training 
school for patent lawyers, who go into private practice 
or private employment at about the time their training has 
made them valuable to Uncle Sam. By the office re- 
organization authorized in the law just passed, the 
number of examiners in the several grades is equalized, 
which will permit of faster promotion from the lower 
grades, and, the commissioner believes, will have the 
effect of reducing the number of resignations, and 
enable the office to get out more work and work of 
better quality. — Christian Science Monitor. 



18 



THE PUBLIC SERVANT 



[March 



Zbe public Servant 

EDWARD A. FITZPATRICK, Editor 



Issued Monthly by the 




Madison, Wis. 



Board of Trustees 

Charles McCarthy Madison, Wis. 

William Thum Pasadena, Cal. 

Winston Churchill, Cornish. N. H. 

Clarence G. McDavitt Boston, Mass. 

Will C. Hogg, Houston, Texas 

Zona Gale, Portage, Wis. 

Neil Gray, Jr. Oswego, N. Y. 

John S. Murdock, .... Providence, R. I. 

Parke R. Kolbe, Akron, Ohio 

Charles M. Fassett Spokane, Wash. 



Director 
Edward A. Fitzpatrick 



Madison, Wis. 



A new year has began. 
Annual dues will be welcome. 



"Personal Relationship as a Basis of 
Scientific Management" is the title of a 
remarkable paper delivered by Mr. Rich- 
ard A. Feiss before the Society to Pro- 
mote the Science of Management. Its es- 
sential point of view is: "The question of 
personnel must ultimately be considered* 
the real problem of management." Just 
as industry is learning this important les- 
son, so must public service. It is more im- 
peratively necessary in public service even 
than in industry. It is to this question of 
personnel in the public service that the 
S. P. T. P. S. is directing its attention. 
The Clothcraft Shops of the Joseph and 
Feiss Company of Cleveland, Ohio, de- 
serve the congratulations of all forward- 
looking persons for its emphasis on per- 
sonnel and for its practical faith in the doc- 
trine. 

This paper of Mr. Feiss throws a new 
aspect on the subject discussed in our last 
issue — whether training for private busi- 
ness is sufficient for training for public 
service. Mr. Feiss says: "There are, how- 
ever, two kinds of fitness to be considered, 
provided a person is suited for industry at 



all; one is fitness for the position; the other 
is fitness for the organization. Of these 
the latter is by far the more important. 

"Fitness for the organization is chiefly a 
question of character. Every organization 
has a distinct character of its own, which is 
often recognized as being a tangible busi- 
ness asset. It is essential, therefore, that 
every member of the organization have a 
character sufficiently developed or capable 
of development to be in harmony with the 
character of the organization. This is the 
basis of esprit de corps. No matter how 
skilled or fitted one may be to do a given 
piece of work, if he is out of harmony with 
the spirit or character of the organization, 
he will be an everlasting detriment to him- 
self and all others in the organization who 
come in contact with him." 

Apart from any question of the differ- 
ence in the skill or ability required, the dif- 
ferent spirit demanded of the public service, 
its different ideals, its social functioning — 
all demand a "fitness for the organization" 
that is different than a similar fitness of 
private business. As industry in general 
approaches the ideal toward which the 
Clothcraft Shops of Cleveland are definitely 
working, training for business will be train- 
ing for the public service in a sense in 
which it is not now. 

But training for the public service is a 
very excellent training for private business. 
It must include everything that business 
training includes plus the relations of gov- 
ernment to the business. It must include 
not merely the self-sufficiency of the busi- 
ness, but the community aspects. It must 
be both practical and ideal, that is. when 
we seriously set about training for public 
service. We ought to now. We will some 
day. 

Private business in the past has fre- 
quently "bought off" by means of exceed- 
ingly large salaries promising ability in the 
public service. It perceived that such 
ability was better on its side than against 
it in the efforts for public regulation. The 
price was a secondary consideration. It is 
surprising, too, how the new atmosphere 
produces a metamorphosis in the erstwhile 
public-minded public servant. What we 
need are public servants who cannot 
be tempted to give up a good piece of 
I Continued on page thirty) 



1.916] PROGRESS OF THE MOVEMENT 19 

Progress of the Movement for Training for Public Service 

By the Editor 

Since the organization of the Training School for Public Service con- 
ducted by the New York Bureau of Municipal Research and the creation 
of the Committee on Practical Training for Public Service of the American 
Political Science Association*, the movement for the promotion of train- 
ing for public service and of university cooperation with government has 
grown rapidly. It has seemed appropriate in this number of the Public 
Servant to list some of the more important advances made or about to 
be made. This summary is confined largely to the universities. It is 
hoped at some later time to list similar advances made in high schools. 

Conferences on Universities and Public Service 

Under the auspices of the Committee on Practical Training for 
Public Service the first National Conference on Universities and Public 
Service was held in New York City on May 13, 14, 1-914, upon the call 
of Mayor John Purroy Mitchel of New York. Representatives from 
thirty-five universities and forty other institutions and from fifteen states 
attended this conference. The speeches delivered at that conference 
have been printed and have been widely circulated. At the meeting de- 
voted to municipal universities the following resolution, introduced by 
President Kolbe of the University of Akron, was passed: 

"Whereas, the mayor in his opening address welcomed the cooperation of the universities 
in the city of New York, with the government of the city of New York; and 

"Whereas, judging by the discussions at this conference there seem to be unlimited op- 
portunities for public service by universities; and 

"Whereas, this seems best attained by a method of training men for the public service 
by doing things that need to be done in the community; and 

"Whereas, this result and this method have been conclusively demonstrated in the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin, the University of Cincinnati, and other higher educational 
institutions in all parts of the country; and 

"Whereas, there is a movement for municipal universities especially in Ohio; and 

"Whereas, New York is a particularly rich opportunity to effect cooperation between 
government and the higher institutions of learning; and 

"Whereas, New York spends over a million dollars annually for its municipal colleges; 

"Therefore, be it resolved by this Conference on Universities and Public Service that the 
municipal colleges of New York be requested to plan an adequate demonstration 
over a period of years of the community service of a municipally supported institu- 
tion in governmental administration and in promoting the general social welfare, and 

"That copies of this resolution be transmitted to the board of trustees of the municipal 
colleges." 

♦Charles McCarthy, -Chairman, Madison, Wisconsin; Albert Bushnell Hart, Harvard University; 
Benjamin F. Shambaugh, University of Iowa; William F. Willoughby, Princeton University, Ray- 
mond O. Gettell, Amherst College; Fdward A. Fitzpalrick, Executive Secretary, Madison, Wisconsin. 



20 THE PUBLIC SERVANT [March 

Those interested in the work of the Committee on Practical 
Training of the American Political Science Association thought it ad- 
visable to have an organization made up of all public-spirited citizens 
actively interested in the improvement of public administration and in 
university cooperation with public service. As a result of this interest 
there was organized the Society for the Promotion of Training for Public 
Service for a period ending in 1920. The purposes of this Society are: 

(a) To publish or reprint and circulate helpful material on university or departmental 

training for public service 

(b) To cooperate with universities and other educational institutions in investigating 

or in preparing plans for training for public service 

(c) To cooperate with existing agencies in any way which will make the whole or any 

part of the program effective 

(d) To stimulate gifts to the universities for practical training for public service 

(e) To prepare a national program for training for public service and to work for its 

adoption 

(f) To make such studies in connection with training for public service as no existing 

organization will undertake 

(g) To help form university alumni and public sentiment on the necessity for training 

for public service 
(h) To formulate an ethics of public service and to emphasize its opportunities as a career 
(i) To give wide publicity to public service training programs, plans and opportunities 
(j) To cooperate with governmental departments, bureaus and commissions in develop- 
ing plans for further training of the men now in the service. 

Under the auspices of this Society and at the call of Governor 
Walsh of Massachusetts the Second National Conference on Universities 
and Public Service was held in Boston, August 24-26, 1915, simultane- 
ously with the meeting of the Governors' Conference. This was attended 
by representatives from nineteen universities and from eighteen other 
institutions from sixteen states. The addresses delivered at this con- 
ference are being published in the Public Servant. 

A striking illustration of the growing consciousness of the op- 
portunity for service and the duty of service to the communities in which 
universities are located is the organization of the Association of Urban 
Universities. There was an organization meeting at Washington in 
1914 at which twenty- two representatives of universities situated in 
urban communities were present. 

A Conference on Cooperation Between the Cities and Univer- 
sities in Training for Public Service was held in Cincinnati November 
15-17, 1915, by the Association of Urban Universities. The subjects of 
the program show the trend of this Association: (a) the needs for co- 
operation; (b) methods of training for public service; and (c) results 
of cooperation in education. 

University Reports 

President Butler of Columbia University appointed a committee, 
with Professor Charles A. Beard as chairman, to investigate the oppor- 
tunities and needs of training men for public service by universities. 



1916} PROGRESS OF THE MOVEMENT 21 

The committee reported back (1) suggestions for a program, and (2) 
recommendations for immediate action. These are given in full on page 27. 
President Sidney Edward Mezes of the College of the City of 
New York appointed on March 6, 1915, a Committee on Municipal Serv- 
ice Survey. Professor Duggan was chairman. The report was prepared 
by Professor Breithut. The fundamental work of this Committee was 
to "consider and to report the ways in which the College might be of 
service to the city government: (1) in preparing students for entrance 
into the city's employ and (2) in improving the efficiency of those already 
in the city's service." The essence of the report is given in the "recom- 
mendations for immediate action" which follow: 

"(1) That there be appointed at the College a Director of Public Service Training. 
It shall be the duty of this officer to keep a record of all municipal positions which are 
open to college students, and the subjects and dates of approaching examinations. He 
shall also establish at the College in cooperation with the Municipal Civil Service Com- 
mission an intelligence office or clearing house for civil service positions, and he shall be 
prepared to advise students as to the courses and methods to be pursued in preparation 
for such positions. He shall confer with the civil service commissioners and chief exam- 
iners as to the relation between college instruction and civil service as to examinations, 
standards, credit for field work and eligibility. The Director of Public Service Training 
shall also confer with the heads of city departments and bureaus with regard to their 
needs and the ability of the College to supply them. 

"(2) That a College Standing Committee on Public Service Training be appointed 
to cooperate and advise with the Director. Such a committee should have among its 
membership representatives of the departments most concerned in the technical training 
of those who will enter public service. 

"(3) That the announcements of the several divisions of the College contain a state- 
ment of the scope and work of the Committee on Public Service Training. 

"(4) That provision be made for cooperation of the College with such unofficial pub- 
lic agencies as the Training School for Public Service and the Bureau of Municipal Re- 
search, especially with a view to the possibility of exchange of students, exchange of in- 
structors and exchange of credit. 

"(5) That the special courses to be recommended and their formal organization be 
immediately taken up by the Director of Public Service Training with his Committee 
and all other departments and agencies involved." 



University Investigations 

President Vincent of the University of Minnesota has recently 
appointed a committee of five with Professor William A. Schaper as 
chairman, to formulate specifically what Minnesota is now doing in the 
way of training men for the public service and what changes should be 
made. 

The Department of Political Science at the University of Illinois is 
making an investigation to determine how much can be accomplished 
in the direction of definitely training men for positions in the public 
service. There was recently submitted to President James a report of a 
"plan of training for the public service." 



22 THE PUBLIC SERVANT [March 

Alumni Interest 

Perhaps one of the most significant things that has happened is 
the beginning of alumni interest in the subject. Acting on a suggestion 
of Governor David I. Walsh, the Alumni Association of the Massachu- 
setts Institute of Technology appointed a committee to make an investi- 
gation of this subject, and they have submitted a report on "Organized 
Cooperation Between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and 
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts." It is an exceedingly suggestive 
compilation and an excellent starting point for a very active program. 

Changes in Ph.D. Requirement* 

To the suggestions of the Committee on Practical Training re- 
garding changes in the Ph.D. requirement, the graduate faculty of the 
University of Pennsylvania responded as follows: 

"You may be interested to know that at the last meeting of the Faculty of the School 
I brought up the matter of securing the closest kind of cooperation with the Committee 
on Practical Training. About two years ago the Faculty adopted a resolution with refer- 
ence to the Training School for Public Service of New York, which reads: 
'"That work in the Training School for Public Service of New York City (conducted 
by the Bureau of Municipal Research) when recommended by the Group Committee, 
and approved by the Executive Committee, be accepted by the Graduate school.' 

"As a result of the discussion the other evening, it was unanimously agreed by the 
Faculty of the Graduate school that the plan of cooperation with the New York Train- 
ing School for Public Service be extended to the Committee on Practical Training for 
Public Service. I am glad to be able to report this favorable action to you." 

A committee of the graduate faculty of the University of Wis- 
consin is considering changes in the requirements of the Ph.D. to permit 
field work to count as part of the residence requirement of the degree. 
For work in geological surveys, for example, the University now permits 
credit for field work in individual cases. The committee is considering 
the advisability of permitting graduate students under proper safeguards 
a somewhat more liberal opportunity to credit field training toward the 
Ph.D. The Society for the Promotion of Training for Public Service 
submitted to this committee in conference the following proposed regu- 
lation:* 

Candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy must pursue their studies in resi- 
dence for a minimum period of three years, provided, however, that the period of resi- 
dence may be proportionately extended to students from institutions in which the course 

of study is not regarded as equivalent to that in ( ) College. In rare cases, 

students may, with the approval of (the proper administrative authority) satisfy the 
residence requirements in two years. 

*Ph.D's. are in a strategic position in our educational system. They run our colleges and uni- 
versities. They run our secondary schools. They write many of the text-books in all grades of 
schools. They train the teachers for all grades of schools. They frequently are responsible for 
courses of study. Hence any change in their training will sooner or later be reverberated throughout 
the educational system. Hence our interest in the subject. 



1916] PROGRESS OF THE MOVEMENT 23 

The requirements of time for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy are wholly secondary. 
This degree does not rest on any computation of time, nor on any enumeration of courses;, 
although no student can become a candidate for it until he has fulfilled the requirements 
of residence and study for the prescribed periods. 

Candidates for the doctor's degree in the social sciences, conforming to all the other 
regulations for such persons, may fulfill the residence requirements of three years gradu- 
ate study as follows: 

1. Two years resident graduate study in some recognized institution of learning, at 
least one of which must be spent at this university. 

2. Practical work for at least eleven months in a governmental department, bureau 
or commission, a legislative reference library, a bureau. of municipal research or 
similar organization under the following conditions: 

(a) That a statement of facts regarding opportunities for practical work, nature 

and extent of supervision of student's work and related facts be submitted 
to the department by the executive officer of the training agency, by a 
member of the university department, or by some other approved person, 
and accepted by the university department concerned as satisfactory 

(b) that monthly or bi-weekly reports of time spent and work done be kept on 

suitable forms, and submitted currently to the professor in charge of the 
major subject of the student 

(c) that the institution where student is working be visited by a representative 

of the department, or by other approved persons, at such intervals as the 
department may think necessary. 

No action has been taken as yet. 

Both Columbia University and New York University will accept 
field work in the New York Training School for Public Service toward 
the "seminar" requirements of the higher degrees. Many universities 
have informal arrangements permitting field work to be credited toward 
the course and seminar requirements of the higher degrees. It is hoped 
that these exceptional instances will be made general and universities 
will consciously stimulate the demand or satisfy the need for such work 
by our graduate students, particularly in the social sciences. 

Student Activity 

The Missouri Government Club has exhibited initiative in a 
remarkable degree. This is an organization of graduate students inter- 
ested in political science at the University of Missouri. They circular- 
ized the members-elect of the 1915 Missouri legislature offering them 
assistance in collecting information on legislative subjects. The response 
was immediate. Besides this organization of themselves into an informal 
legislative reference library, they have been engaged in drafting different 
legislation. 

Another illustration of student initiative in cooperation with a 
professor occurred recently at the University of Vermont. The people 
of the state had referred to them by the legislature the question of prefer- 
ence of the preferential primary system or the direct primary law. The 
class in politics of the University of Vermont set to work and collected 
reports of experience and other facts regarding both of these questions 



24 THE PUBLIC SERVANT [March 

and submitted them as a pamphlet to the voters of the state. The pam- 
phlet was published as a number of the regular bulletin of the university. 
Whether the information submitted was very valuable or not is not per- 
tinent from our standpoint. The question which these students seemed 
to have clearly in mind was the function of the university as an agency 
to supply accurate data upon which public policy can be determined. 
That step is to be commended highly. It is submitted to the students of 
other universities for emulation. 



Practical Steps 

The University of Texas has outlined a series of courses designed 
to train men for the leading divisions of municipal administration. 
Courses are outlined as follows: public safety and welfare; public finance; 
public education; public law; municipal engineering; public health. 
Professor Herman G. James has formulated the proposals in a recent 
number of the official bulletin of the University of Texas. 

The University of Michigan announced courses for the training 
of men in municipal administration. In its catalogue it says: 

"The University of Michigan offers the degree of Master of Arts (or Master of Science) 
in Municipal Administration upon completion of the program of required studies in that 
field. The minimum period of instruction entails one year of work in the Graduate 
School and three months of field work under the direction of the Committee. A second 
graduate year will be necessary, unless a number of the prescribed courses have been 
taken as undergraduate studies." 

"The program of courses is designed to meet the needs of all those who aim to take 
an active part in the guidance of municipal affairs. It should be of greatest utility in 
training for municipal office, whether of bureau, division or department head, of mayor, 
or director under the commission form of city government, or of city manager; and for 
such public or semi-public positions as director of bureaus of municipal reference and re- 
search or as civic and commercial secretary. Opportunities for permanent careers are 
now open in the semi-public positions and are becoming more and more definitely recog- 
nized in the strictly public service." 

There is a remarkable demonstration going on in New York of 
the possibility of training men already in the public service through co- 
operation of the city administration with local universities. This was 
done first through the cooperation of New York University and more 
recently through the cooperation with the College of the City of New 
York. This work is now under the direction of Professor Frederick B. 
Robinson. It is such work that all universities situated in urban centers 
might very well do. 

The New York Training School for Public Service continues 
its work in training men through contact with government under the 
direction of the Bureau of Municipal Research. Professor Charles A. 
Beard of Columbia University is supervisor of the school, and Darrell 
H. Smith, assistant supervisor. 



1916} PROGRESS OF THE MOVEMENT 25 

An "Institute for Public Service" was recently organized in 
New York City by Dr. William H. Allen with the following among other 
purposes: 

"To conduct at New York City and at affiliated centers that may hereafter be formed, 
and in localities offering opportunities for training through study of local problems, a 
training school for public service through assignments of practical field work that needs 
to be done; and to that end 

"To study methods of securing, in all subjects in all schools, the use for educational 
purposes of work that needs to be done and other field and laboratory work. 

"To study methods of establishing and conducting centers for field training especially 
for public service, in centers of population and industry." 

The New York Training School for Community Center Workers 
was organized in February, 1915. It aims to train men for social work 
through community centers by actual field training supplemented by 
seminars and instruction. This is a highly specialized form of training 
social workers. It is this whole problem with which the schools of phil- 
anthropy and the schools for social workers established at Chicago, New 
York, St. Louis and Boston aim to deal. The method of the school is 
thus outlined: 

"To this end there is offered a year of carefully supervised field work; a tutorial sys- 
tem insuring continuous individual attention to each student; a series of intimate con- 
ferences designed to cover exhaustively the special problems which arise in community 
centers; and a seminar course which will focalize on the community center problem the 
light from wider interests and from the theoretical sciences— from psychology, economic 
history and economics, and sociology." 

With the Department of Public Works of Philadelphia the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania has developed a unique and very much worth 
while form of cooperation. The university has placed at the disposal of 
Mr. Cooke a number of scholarships. These, Mr. Cooke said "give me 
an opportunity to give scholarships to employees of our department who 
show possibility of growth." This is an obvious first step that any uni- 
versity may take at once. 

Serious efforts are now being made, too, to provide experts in the 
field of public health administration. The first recognition came in the or- 
ganization of the field of sanitary engineering. But there has developed a 
need for a wider preparation than the work in sanitary engineering has 
ordinarily required. This need for public health administrators has been 
answered in such an institution as the school for health officers conducted 
by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
where the courses of study cover a wide range, including medical, bio- 
logical, hygienic and engineering sciences together with practical health 
administration. 

The establishment of the University of Akron as a municipal 
institution is a very significant step. This is only a sign of the increasing 
vitality of the movement for municipally supported universities. The 
obvious obligation of serving the community both by training men for 



26 . THE PUBLIC SERVANT [March 

public service and by giving expert service to the community seems 
gladly to be accepted by this type of institution which is becoming in- 
creasingly significant. The University of Akron has made arrangements 
with the Akron Bureau of Municipal Research for field training for its 
students and the first year's work has been satisfactory to all concerned: 
bureau, university and student. 

A Demonstration m Methods of Training 

Perhaps the greatest need in connection with the movement 
for training for public service is the development of a technique of field 
work which will coordinate with the theoretical instruction. The co- 
operative method worked out by Dean Herman Schneider of the Uni- 
versity of Cincinnati is the most fruitful and suggestive method that 
has been presented. Though developed in connection with engineering, 
it is of the widest application. Its use in the New York City high schools 
during the past year in cooperation with commercial houses shows its 
application in a new sphere in a lower grade of school. The "Fitchburg 
plan" showed some of its possibilities even in elementary education. In 
Pasadena the Throop School of Technology is working progressively 
along this line though it is developing its work independently of Cincin- 
nati. The University of Akron has taken one of Dean Schneider's fellow 
workers, Dean Ayer, and has established an engineering school on the 
cooperative plan. 

Other Points 

On January 12, 1914, Mayor Fitzgerald of Boston informed the 
Committee on Practical Training that he "expected to hold a conference 
of the heads of the colleges near Boston on January twenty-eighth, to 
discuss possible cooperation of these colleges with the city," and re- 
quested the cooperation of the Committee. The assistance was given. 
A plan was outlined, and the meeting was held, but no practical results 
followed. As an example of the willingness of a city official to take such 
a step, it is very significant, and it will be yet more significant if other 
public officials follow the Boston precedent. 

A Committee on Cooperation was appointed by the National 
Municipal League to cooperate with the Committee on Practical Train- 
ing for Public Service of the American Political Science Association. This 
committee submitted a report to the Committee on Practical Training 
which emphasizes strongly the need for the removal of the local resi- 
dence requirement for public office and points out the very great sig- 
nificance of the city manager plan in a trained public service. 

A literature on the subject of training for public service has been 
created. We shall publish a little later a bibliography on this subject. 



1916] PROGRESS OF THE MOVEMENT 27 

Suggestions and Recommendations 

or tne 

Special Committee on Training for Public Service 

Appointed by- 
President Butler of Columbia University 

As a result of a careful study of the work of the Training School for 
Public Service and a series of conferences with men of wide experience 
in public and private affairs, your Committee has come to the conclusion 
that the following program offers an adequate training for unofficial 
public service and such higher non-technical administrative positions 
as are now open in official service : 

1. Two or three years of regular college training including elementary government. 

economics, etc. 

2. One year of special training embracing the following subjects: 

a. Municipal Government (specialized course); b. Administrative Law: c. 
Public and Municipal Accounting; d. Office and Works Management; 
e. Public Finance and Budget Making; f. Institutions of Public Welfare; 
g. City Planning and Social Surveys: h. Technique of In\ estigation and 
Inquiry; i. Statistics and Reporting: including instruction in English and 
graphic methods of presentation. 

3. One year of contact or field work and observation. 

This work should be done (under the direction of the Standing Committee 
on Training for Public Service hereinafter described) in New York City Depart- 
ments or in cooperation with the Bureau of Municipal Research and Training 
School for Public Service in such a manner that each student may secure practi- 
cal experience in 

a. Budget making. 

b. The investigation of several branches of public administration. 

c. The preparation of reports and recommendation on the basis of ascertained 

results. 

d. The practice of presenting oral statements of results in short form. 

Nearly all of the courses of formal instruction above enumerated 
are already given at the University. In time, additional courses could 
be offered by present members of the teaching staff and one or more 
lecturers could be called in to supplement the work. At all events, we 
could develop the instruction normally on the basis of courses already 
given, adding new lines of work and instructors as the requirements of 
the undertaking unfold under experience. 

On this plan the following program could be arranged: 

1. The Public Service Courses, i.e., the formal instruction, could be opened to men 
and women who have completed two years of college work (or three as the case may bo 
and regarded as completing the requirements for the A.B. or B.S. degrees. 

2. The courses of formal instruction should be open to both advanced undergraduates 
and graduates and count toward the baccalaureate or the higher degrees. 

3. A student offering the Public Service Courses as the last year's undergraduate 
work could be permitted to count the year's contact or field work toward the degree 



28 THE PUBLIC SERVANT [March 

of Master of Arts subject to the approval of appropriate authorities. Thus at the end 
of four or five years, as the ease may be, the college student could attain the A.M. degree 
(as at present) and at the same time have a year of practical training. 

Procedure along this line would seem to be recommended by the 
following considerations: 

1. It would allow us to take advantage of the real demand for men 
and women in the field of unofficial public service to organize a course 
of instruction that would be useful for those contemplating entering 
the official public service. 

2. It would enable us to offer to students who have specialized in 
the professional schools an opportunity to add a highly desirable ad- 
ministrative training to their technical work, thus equipping them better 
for official public service, should they seek a career in some of the technical 
fields which, as we have stated above, afford excellent opportunities. 

3. It would permit us to move from this higher branch of training for 
public service to the lower branches if, in the light of experience, it 
should be found desirable to do so, but it would not commit us to a 
policy of competition with cramming schools. 

4. It would permit us to take advantage of the unparalleled oppor- 
tunities for practical training in administration offered in the City of 
New York and thus give the University a unique position among all 
the institutions of the country in the excellence of the facilities offered 
in this field. 

Recommendations for Immediate Action 

1. That a University Standing Committee on Training for Public 
Service be established, the said Committee to be composed of a chairman 
and four additional members from the School of Mines, of Engineering 
and of Chemistry, the Faculty of Political Science, the School of Archi- 
tecture, and Teachers College. 

2. That is shall be the duty of the Standing Committee to continue 
the study of the problems of training for public service and present from 
time to time to the appropriate authorities recommendations relative 
to the organization of new courses, the adaptation of courses already 
offered, and such other matters as may be calculated to increase the 
efficiency of the University's work in training for official and unofficial 
public service. 

3. That it shall be the duty of the Chairman of the Committee, in 
cooperation with the present Committee on Appointments, to keep 
a record of all positions, federal, state, and municipal, which may be 
attractive to college students, and the subjects and dates of approaching 
examinations, and to be prepared to advise students contemplating 
entering the public service as to the courses and methods to be pursued 
in preparation for such positions. It shall be the duty of the Chairman 
to confer with civil service commissioners and chief examiners as to the 
relation between University instruction and civil service examinations, 



1916] PROGRESS OF THE MOVEMENT 29 

standards, and eligibility. The Chairman shall also study the whole 
field of unofficial public service and be prepared to advise students de- 
siring to enter that service. 

4. That the announcements of the several divisions of the University 
shall contain a statement of the scope and work of the Committee on 
Training for Public Service in order that students may be encouraged 
to confer with the Chairman as to courses of study leading to public 
service and the methods of entering such service. 

5. That the Committee in connection with the faculties of Columbia 
and Barnard Colleges shall study the problem of organizing the year's 
course in Public Service Instruction as outlined above. 

6. That upon recommendation of the Standing Committee the Ex- 
tension Division of the University, in co-operation with the several 
technical and professional schools of the University, shall offer special 
courses of instruction for persons already in the civil service of New 
York City who desire to increase their knowledge and efficiency and to 
prepare for promotions, and that these courses be offered at such times 
and places as may be convenient to civil servants. 

7. That provision be made for cooperating with the Training School 
for Public Service in New York City on the following basis : 

a. Exchange of students. That Columbia University shall admit without charge to 
courses of instruction in the University students from the Training School to such a 
number as the University Committee on Training for Public Service may deem an ade- 
quate return for the facilities offered to the students of Columbia University by the 
Training School. 

b. Exchange of Instructors. That professors in Columbia University may, by arrange- 
ment with the Training School for Public Service, offer courses of instruction at the 
Training School and that such courses may, on approval by the appropriate authority, 
be counted as equivalent to courses offered at the University. That members of the 
staff of the Training School may, on the recommendation of the Faculty concerned and 
the Trustees of the University, be authorized to offer courses of instruction in the Uni- 
versity. 

c. Credit for field work. That the graduate faculties of Columbia University, or any 
one of them adopting this provision, shall, on recommendation of the Dean and the 
above University Committee on Public Service, grant credit for work done in the Training 
School for Public Service, provided that in no case shall the credit granted exceed the 
value of one minor and such additional credit toward the major as the professor in charge 
shall allow. Provided further that in every case such work in the Training School shall be 
done under the general supervision of the professor of Columbia University in charge 
of the students' major subject and with the approval of the Dean. 

8. That a comprehensive course in City Planning shall be given at 
the University by the Schools of Architecture, Engineering, and Political 
Science in co-operation. 

9. That the formal organization of the courses on Public Service, 
outlined above shall be delayed until the University Committee on 
Training for Public Service and the Faculties concerned have given 
the whole subject a careful consideration in connection with the 
proposed changes designed to make the requirements for the higher 



30 



THE PUBLIC SERVANT 



[March 



degrees more flexible, and in connection also with the proposed business 
course in Columbia College, suggested by President Butler in his annual 
report of 1914.* 



(Continued from page eighteen) 

work well begun for all the salaries in 
the world. We need soldiers of the 
common good in the regular army of 
the public service. We need to give in 
our training for public service what Pro- 
fessor Ross calls a "moral stiffening " 



The City Club of Cleveland gave New- 
ton D. Baker, the retiring mayor of Cleve- 
land, a dinner to express public apprecia- 
tion for a public service well done. The 
Club believes that such an expression of 
public good will is worth while and will 
hereafter tender banquets and appreciation 
meetings to retiring public officials. So 
far, so good. Congratulations and best 
wishes to the City Club of the Sixth City! 

But our enthusiasm would have been 
higher and our applause greater if the City 
Club had taken some street cleaner or po- 
liceman or minor administrative officer and 
made him feel the public appreciation for 
some work well done. The rewards and 
the public appreciations to the generals of 
the public service army are many, but to 
the men in the trenches, they are few. Let 
us seek out the worthy among them. Let 
them know in some suitable way that they 
are working for all of us, and we know that 
they are doing it well and we appreciate it. 
Let them take their wives along and their 
children to the meeting. Whether a pub- 
lic banquet is the best way to express the 
public appreciation is a question. To 
some worthy public servants, a banquet 
might be an embarrassment incapable of 
description — a public speech a heroism be- 
yond their simple imaginations. 

May we add another word. Let us not 
wait until a public servant is through with 
his work. Let us cooperate with him in his 
day-to-day efforts to make the city or state 
better. Let us above all be sure we tell him 
when he has done well. There are enough 
agencies to tell him when he has done ill. 



Let us through our appreciation currently 
expressed keep his courage to the sticking 
point for the public weal. 

We may go even farther. We ought to 
look into the conditions of public employ- 
ment and do at least what big business is 
doing for private employment, to wit: wel- 
fare work, pensions, sickness insurance, rea- 
sonable vacations, opening up the oppor- 
tunity for advancement in positions and in 
salary for devoted and efficient service. 
Why not, Members of the City Club of 
Cleveland, and all others interested in civic 
advance'? In this you build at founda- 
tions. 



The National Conference on Com- 
munity Centers and Related Problems 

will be held in New York City April 19-22, 
1916. Such a conference is well worth 
while and called as it is by "one hundred 
leaders of the community center move- 
ment dwelling in various parts of the 
United States" it will be representative, 
and suggestions of great value ought to 
develop. Information about the Confer- 
ence may be secured from Organization 
Headquarters, 70 Fifth Avenue, New York 
City. 

We hope that the Conference will dis- 
cuss and develop the tremendous poten- 
tialities of the community centers in the 
formulation of public opinion and in secur- 
ing the enforcement of law. These political 
aspects of these genuinely democratic or- 
ganizations have been too frequently dis- 
cussed in the language of exaggeration 
and of sentimentality. The Conference 
win, we hope, deal with them seriously 
and sanelv. 



The National Conference on Univer- 
sities and Public Service will probably 
be held in Philadelphia, November 15, 16, 
17, 1916. Definite announcement will be 
made in the next issue. 



♦Charles A. Beard, Chairman, Edwin R. A. Seligman, Franklin H. Giddings, James C. Egbert, 
Henry R. Seager, Walter Rautenstrauch, Frederick A. Goetze, Samuel McCune Lindsay, George D. 
Strayer, Walter I. Slichter, Arthur H. Blanchard, Austin W. Lord, Daniel D. Jackson, Howard L. 
McBain, Committee. 



1916} 



THE PUBLIC SERVANT 



31 



The My tli of German Bureaucracy 



"Germany has taken care of her working classes 
much as she has taken care of her business inter- 
ests," writes Roosevelt in the Metropolitan Maga- 
zine. "Germany has done this under an autocratic 
government. It is for us to show like efficiency 
under a democratic government. Democracy is on 
trial. "- 

This is what we have all been thinking and say- 
ing. We have been admitting German efficiency, 
military and industrial. But we have solaced our- 
selves in the thought that German efficiency was 
the result of German bureaucracy, a thing unthink- 
able in the United States. We may be inefficient, 
we have said, but if we have to give up our personal 
liberty in order to be efficient it is too high a price. 
We have taken it for granted that out of Berlin 
came orders, orders based on high intelligence, but 
nevertheless orders thwarting local initiative. 

It has been a comfort to 

think in this fashion. It 

seemed that we were giving 
up certain comforts for soul 
development. 

William Hard, in an ar- 
ticle in the same number of 
the Metropolitan, asserts 
that we are wrong, and that 
our repugnance to German 
systems will have to seek 
some other justification. 
Mr. Hard asserts and de- 
monstrates that the German 
government is not half so 
bureaucratic in many im- 
portant matters as our own, 
that where we have absolute 
government control the Ger- 
mans have local self-govern- 
ment and that where our 
federal government steps 
in the German government 
steps out. He shows that 
German strength lies not in 

the bureaucracy but in precisely those branches of 
life in which the principles of self-rule have been 
most widely applied. 

There is, for instance, the German rural 
credit system. There were 17,000 credit so- 
cieties in Germany in 1910. They are entirely 
self-ruled. In a little town in the grand duchy of 
Hesse the credit society had 380 stockholders, each 
owning one certificate at the value of $12.50. 
They all vote. Any man of sufficient character 
may own a share and vote. He is liable through 
his ownership of one share with his entire property. 

These seventeen thousand societies loan money 
to farmers at low rates. There is, it is true, a cen- 
tral bank, which pays interest on deposits made by 
the credit societies and loans them money. It sta- 
bilizes credit. This bank is operated by the govern- 
ment. 

The same self-government applies in sickness in- 
surance, except that employers and employes are 
compelled to support it and compelled also to ad- 
minister it. The workman not only must pay his 



BUREAUCRACY! BUREAUCRACY! 

We shall hear this sooner or 
later urged as an argument 
against a trained public service. 
The Public Servant will discuss 
this question frequently. Today 
it offers, by way of opening the 
discussion, an editorial from the 
Chicago Tribune emphasizing a 
point that the American democ- 
racy should keep in mind. It 
seems to be forgotten, for ex- 
ample, in Walter Lippman's 
article on "Integrated America", 
in a recent number of the New 
Republic. 



assessment to the sick fund, but he must serve on 
the managing committee if he is elected. The em- 
ployer, because he must pay his proportion of the 
sick benefits and because he must help administer 
the sick benefit fund, is eager to keep his factory 
sanitary. His colleagues are just as zealous. They 
pay for sickness. Inspectors are hardly necessary. 

Prussia has fostered agriculture in the same way. 
The paths of Prussian agriculture are not deter- 
mined by Berlin. They are determined by associa- 
tions of farmers, elective and official. Funds are 
supplied by taxation, but it is a special taxation, 
which is levied against farmers. The functions of 
our bureaucratic department of agriculture are per- 
formed by these associations of farmers. 

It is the same with the business in cities. An of- 
ficial body of business men, cooperative and official, 
runs the board of trade, settles disputes, and formu- 
lates trade rules. A local 
advisory council of busi- 
ness men, farmers, manu- 
facturers, etc., at each rail 
center, has much to say 
about rates and service. 
Each local council is repre- 
sented at Berlin in a central 
council, which practically 
settles the relation of the 
state railways to business. 

It is, perhaps, a form of 
paternalism. But it • is a 
paternalism which fosters 
individual initiative and 
individual responsibility. 

Mr. Hard points out the 
total failure of German 
bureaucracy before it at- 
tempted to stimulate local 
self-government. Now it is 
compelling local self-gov- 
ernment. It is compelling 
men to be citizens whether 
they wish to or not. The 
business man has been thrust into public serv- 
ice and forced tojassume responsibilities beyond his 
own trade. 

In spite of the shock it gives Americans — where 
we believe thoroughly in every man's right to be a 
bum if he likes — the Prussian system does not seek 
to regulate from above. j It seeks to compel those 
interested to do the regulating for themselves. 

It would be extremely painful for some of us to be 
compelled into citizenship. In the United States no 
one pays any attention to government unless he 
wants to. He may be an extremely private citizen. 
There are many persons in this country who want 
the federal government to do everything. That, they 
assert, is the only road to efficiency. We are always 
crying for federal regulation of one thing or an- 
other. We have even gone in, to a considerable ex- 
tent, for bureaucracy. Prussian efficiency has urged 
us that way. But it is discouraging to think that 
this efficiency is democratic, not bureaucratic. If 
Mr. Hard is right, it is not democracy which is on 
trial. It is ourselves. — Chicago Tribune. 



Society for the Promotion of 
Training for Public Service 

A National Civic Organization 



Its Program 

Improvement of public administration. 

Making public service a profession. 

Practical training for public service. 

Harnessing civil service reform to an educational program. 

Widest community service of our educational institutions. 

More agencies of accurate public information. 

More effective civic organizations. 

Extension of the part-time principle in education. 

Removing local residence requirement for public service. 

Welfare work for public employees. 



Its Methods 

Publicity — a monthly bulletin. 
Personal assistance. 

Research and constructive investigations. 
The Bureau of Information. 
The Drafting Bureau for Social Legislation. 
The National Conference on Universities and Public 
Service. 

Your Cooperation is Desired 

Fill in the following form: 



Society for the Promotion of Training for Public Service 
Box 380, Madison, Wisconsin 

Enclosed please find $ for which enroll me as a 

member of the S. P. T. P. S. for the year ending December, 1916. Please send 
me The Public Seroant regularly. 



Name. 



Address. 



Associate membership $3.00 a year. 
Active membership $5.00 
Contributing " 10.00 

Donors " 100.00 " 

Founders 1 000.00 or more. 



tTbc public Servant 

' ' There can be no higher ambition than that of serving the state, nothing more creditable than to serve it well. ' ' 



Number 3 
April, 1916 



Issued Monthly except July and August, by the 

Society for the Promotion ot Training for Public Service 

Madison, Wisconsin 



This Issue 
25 cents 



^lllillllllllillllllllll!ll!lllllllll!III!illliIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM 

To Hon. James A. Frear, 

| public servant, member of Congress from Wisconsin, | 
| courageous and pertinacious enemy of the pork barrel | 
| and all its ways, this number of | 

| The Public Servant j 

| is dedicated because of his great service to public ad- | 

| ministration, to straightforward national legislation, § 

| and to civic education through his efforts to end a | 

| blight which permeates all our national law-making. 

!Tll!llllllllllll!lll!ll!!!li:il!!l!l!!lll!lllll!ill!!lll!!!!ll!llllllll!l!lllll!l!lllllllll!llll!llll!lllll!llllllllllll!l!IIIIN 



A Remedy for Educational Waste 

Our entire educational system, primary and secondary, col- 
legiate and technical, is sick with inconsequential bookishness, 
and school work has become the most inefficient of all the or- 
ganized efforts of men. * * * 

The greatest educational problem of our time is to make 
use of commercial and industrial establishments as schools to 
the extent that they are schools. — W. S. Franklin. 



34 



THE PUBLIC SERVANT 



[April 



TEbe public Servant 

EDWARD A. FITZPATRICK, Editor 



Issued Monthly by the 




'»/S— l*»° 

Madison, Wis. 



Board of Trustees 
Charles McCarthy .... Madison, Wis. 

William Thum Pasadena, Cal. 

"Winston Churchill .... Cornish, N. H. 
Clarence G. McDavitt . . . Boston, Mass. 

Will C. Hogg Houston, Texas 

Zona Gale Portage, Wis. 

Neil Gray, Jr Oswego, N. Y. 

John S. Murdock . . . Providence, R. I. 

Parke R. Kolbe Akron, Ohio 

Charles M. Fassett . . . Spokane, Wash.- 

Director 
Edward A. Fitzpatrick . . Madison, Wis. 



Many thanks for the many kind words 
from our readers. 



The general purpose of this Society 
shall be the promotion of effective coordi- 
nated theoretical and practical training for 
public service and of continued training of 
men in the public service. (Art. II, § 1, 
Constitution. ) 

The term "public service," as used in 
the title of this Society and elsewhere in 
this constitution, shall include the public 
service strictly so-called, and also that 
large number of civic, citizen, municipal 
and efficiency organizations whose pri- 
mary purpose is cooperation with govern- 
ment in the interest of the common wel- 
fare. Nothing in this constitution shall 
prohibit the board of trustees from stimu- 
lating adequate, theoretical and practical 
training from a social point of view for 
any business, trade or profession affected 
largely with a public interest. (Art. I, 
§ 2, Constitution.) 



We begin in this number the dedication 
of each number of The PUBLIC SERV- 
ANT to men or women who have per- 
formed distinctive public service anywhere 



in the country either as official or as citizen. 
We shall be glad to have our readers call 
our attention to men or women who deserve 
such recognition. 

If it should develop that a great many 
names are suggested, we shall be glad to 
begin an "honor roll" for distinctive public 
service. 



The Commonwealth Review has just 
appeared. It is a quarterly published by 
the University of Oregon under the editor- 
ship of Professor F. G. Young. 

Congratulations! It is like a breath of 
cool air across the desert of the ordinary 
university publication. It is very appro- 
priately named. It feels the throb of the 
life of the commonwealth and reflects it. 
But more, it proposes to deal with it con- 
structively. The University of Oregon is 
apparently free — more free than any uni- 
versity that we know. It apparently ac- 
cepts its function as a constructive agency 
in the interest of all of the people of Ore- 
gon. "So far," says the editor, "we have 
been concerned with making clear that the 
characteristic institutional function of a 
state university is to participate in organ- 
izing the forces of progress in a common- 
wealth. In so doing, it is not only serving 
with largest purpose and result the people 
of the state at large but it is also most 
deeply and wholesomely influencing the 
youth in its charge." We are glad that 
such a force for good is unleashed in the 
university world. 

Congratulations and best wishes, Com- 
monwealth, University, Review and 
Editor ! 



We cannot here and now review the 
many helpful articles in The Common* 
wealth Review on the improvement of pub- 
lic administration in state, county and city, 
directly related as they are to our prob- 
lem. But there is an article in this first 
number of the Review that goes to the very 
heart of our problem. It is the announce- 
ment of "A Proposed School of Common* 
(Continued on page forty-two) 



1916] SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE 35 



Making Chambers of Commerce Socially Efficient 

Or, A Plan for an Institute for Training Secretaries of Chambers of 
Commerce and Other Commercial Organizations* 

Organized Efforts to Help Communities 

One of the most striking facts of our contemporary efforts for community 
betterment is the very large number of organizations of citizens for the 
achievement of public purposes or for cooperation with government to ac- 
complish these purposes. The number of these organizations is legion. To 
list them all would be a tedious task. Among the more common of these 
organizations are women's clubs, city clubs, public education associations, 
municipal associations, community center clubs, voters' leagues, and cham- 
bers of commerce. 

These clubs, organizations and leagues are evidence that there is a public 
interest, or at least an interest of large sections of the public in the community 
welfare. Here is a potential public opinion of decisive force in our com- 
munity efforts for improvement. However, at the present time it is not per- 
haps ten per cent effective. Why? 

These clubs are frequently in the hands of officials to whom their duties 
are incidental or they are placed in the hands of a paid secretary who is un- 
trained. With notable exceptions — and not a few — these clubs are without 
any concrete community program, or any definite plan of action. Efforts 
are abortive because of lack of accurate information, of program, of plan. 
Success has followed frequently because of the natural ability of the secretary 
in a situation that has called forth his best effort or because trained men have 
been summoned to the assistance of the organization. 



*The plan as formulated is the work of the editor, but the suggestion for it, rather 
fully developed, was made by Mr. Burt Williams in his address on "America's New 
Profession in the Service of the Public" before the Conference on Universities and Pub- 
lic Service at Boston in August, 1915. Mr. Williams has been active in chamber of 
commerce work for many years and has been since 1913a member of the board of 
directors of the Madison (Wis.) Board of Commerce. Mr. Williams has been sev- 
eral times mayor of Ashland, Wisconsin, has been president of the Wisconsin League 
of Municipalities and is now collector of internal revenue for the western district of 
Wisconsin. We are glad to commend to our readers Mr. Williams' program of train- 
ing secretaries of chambers of commerce for the public service. 



36 THE PUBLIC SERVANT [April 

The Chamber of Commerce 

The Older Type — The chamber of commerce is one type of this organi- 
zation. In an older form it was called a board of trade, and was a negligible 
factor in community life. At times it was even anti-social. Its main effort 
was devoted to bring more factories to the town, to boom business. "Business 
is business" was the device on its banner and its narrowness of vision did not 
help the community — nor, at times, business. 

The Newer View — But within the last five years there has been going on 
a rapid transformation in the scope and activity of chambers of commerce. 
The city is its home. It must be a healthly, sanitary, beautiful, well-gov- 
erned place. The chamber of commerce is interested in business still. It 
wants to boom business, too. But its first interest is the community. It finds, 
too, that that is better for business. A good city government, for example, 
is the best form of city advertising. A low death rate is an inducement to set- 
tle and live in the town. "The City Beautiful" has been a form of advertise- 
ment that many cities have appreciated — to the lasting benefit, too, of its 
citizens. 

This new spirit is worded by the Minneapolis Civic and Commerce Asso- 
ciation in connection with a specific problem in these words: "A new spirit 
is developing in industry, a spirit born of the realization that all industry suf- 
fers through the misfortune of any factor. The employer fails to prosper 
as his men fail to prosper. Bad housing for the workman means bad business 
for the one who hires him. In the light of this spirit, the primary question 
is not 'What can the tenant afford?'; it is 'What can Minneapolis afford ?< 
If we are to develop in Minneapolis the highest type of civilization, if industry 
is to thrive permanently, if art and music are to serve their highest purposes, 
we must first recognize as an essential perquisite to the realization of these 
high ideals, the providing of a home life for every family, rich or poor, that 
shall insure to them their inalienable rights to sanitation, safety, ventilation, 
privacy, sunlight, space and beauty." 

Its Activities 

But this change in the point of view of the chambers of commerce may be 
illustrated by a few of their recent activities: 

1 . The Buffalo Chamber of Commerce lists its department of industrial 

education and vocational guidance first among its dozen service 
departments. 

2. The Minneapolis Civic and Commerce Association organizes a bureau 

of municipal research as one of its activities. 

3. The Boston Chamber of Commerce announces its interest in the Mas- 

sachusetts university extension movement just inaugurated. 



1916] SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE 37 

4. The Chamber of Commerce of Norfolk, Virginia, devotes a year's 
work of one of its committees to charter-making that is likely to 
result in a state-wide movement for a modified city-manager plan 
of government. 

These particular instances happen to be quoted because they just "p°p" 
into our mind. 

Unemployment, agricultural organizations, rural credit, housing, pure 
milk, invention, tuberculosis, honest public work, training men for business — 
these and many other subjects of equal importance have been made the sub- 
ject of reports or of active campaigns during the past year. Chicago, Min- 
neapolis, Detroit, Topeka, Boston, San Francisco, New York, St. Louis, 
Dayton, Omaha, St. Joseph, Missouri, and Rochester have done noteworthy 
work in the civic and social field which has "come across our desk" recently. 

The Secretary 

This change in the functions of the chamber of commerce has placed 
great responsibilities upon it. These duties and their corresponding respon- 
sibilities have called for special knowledge, special information and vision. 
These duties can no longer be the incidental duties of anyone, nor be ade- 
quately performed by persons of good intentions only. The secretary must 
be carefully trained for his job. Upon him largely falls the duty of plan- 
ning the campaign of the chamber and carrying it through. He must interest 
the membership in these problems and guide the work of the committees of 
members. He must carry along with this activity an educational publicity 
campaign and he must edit, secure contributions, and make up the chamber's 
weekly paper. His is a full-sized man's job. Thus has a new profession 
been created — and the possibility of a new career in the service of the public. 

It is no reflection on the present secretaries of these chambers of commerce, 
particularly in the smaller cities, to say that they have not measured up to the 
opportunities that confront them. This is true not only of secretaries of 
chambers of commerce, but of other community organizations and of the pub- 
lic officials themselves. That many of these secretaries have done remark- 
able work cannot be doubted. Natural ability will assert itself. 

Many of the men who have become secretaries were taken directly from 
business without ever having any direct training for the job. Nowhere in the 
United States could such training be secured. Theoretical instruction didn't 
help much and opportunities for practical training were not available. Many 
secretaries of chambers of commerce have expressed to us the desire for some 
opportunity to secure the training they missed. A number of college gradu- 
ates have frequently asked us what they would do in life. To the suggestion 



38 THE PUBLIC SERVANT [April 

that they should enter this field, they said they would gladly if they had the 
training or could get it. We have been unable to advise them where they 
could get it. 

A Need 

It was this change in the function of the chamber of commerce, this need 
for training men for the position of secretary, and this willingness of college 
graduates to enter the field that prompt us to submit to you for criticism and 
suggestion the following tentative program for an educational institute. 

No greater public service could be performed than to place in these stra- 
tegic social positions trained men. The opportunity for good amazes us as 
we contemplate it. It encourages us to place before you our first thought of 
what might be done. At the beginning this much at least ought to be done : 
to provide opportunity 

( 1 ) For helping secretaries of chambers of commerce now working 

(2) For furnishing a clearing house of information on the problems of 

the chamber of commerce 

(3) For training young men (or women) for positions as secretaries of 

such chambers. 

The Opportunity 

There are at the present time affiliated with the National Chamber of 
Commerce over seven hundred chambers of commerce. Not affiliated with 
this organization are a thousand more. Here is a potential force of unknown 
power. To help direct it, to help make it more effective, is as big an oppor- 
tunity for public service as exists in the country. It would be a patriotic serv- 
ice to give this force social direction. 

The institute, particularly in its inception, will be interested mostly in the 
secretaries of chambers of commerce of the smaller cities — say under fifty 
thousand population. It is there that the need is greatest and the opportuni- 
ties most obvious. 

The secretary of these organizations is the dynamic factor. To fit him 
better for his job ; to inspire him to a bigger vision of his job ; to show him how 
others are helping their community ; to inform, to guide, to stimulate him cur- 
rently are the things that ought to be done for this country now. It summons 
all forward-looking men to help in the work. We submit herewith a first 
attempt at a plan to accomplish this worthy end. 



1916] SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE 39 

The Plan 

The plan involves five things : 

( 1 ) A two year course for men of good education and preferably some 

experience in business, for positions as secretaries 

(2) Short courses of from two to four weeks, two or three times a year 

for secretaries who are in positions 

(3) Correspondence courses for secretaries who cannot take the short 

courses. 

(4) A monthly publication — a national publication. 

(5) A municipal and state reference library from which inquiries on any 

phase of the work of chambers of commerce or other community 
clubs will be answered. 

The Long Course 

For young men — or perhaps young women — of good education and some 
experience in business a two year course has been tentatively outlined at this 
time for criticism. With all of these courses there goes a considerable amount 
of field investigation. The courses are : 

( 1 ) Municipal charter -making — The present forms of charters in Ameri- 

can cities. The essentials of a charter. Charter campaigns. 
The charter and home rule. The charter and the administra- 
tive code. 

(2) Municipal administration — An intensive study of two municipal de- 

partments : public health and public education. A more gen- 
eral study of the remaining departments. Emphasis throughout 
this course is on the actual administrative processes. 

(3) County government in its relation to the city. 

(4) The state legislature — The actual processes of law making. Legis- 

lative drafting. The legislative reference library. The lobby. 
The organization of the legislature. The rules of the legisla- 
ture. Committee hearings and the committees of the whole. 

(5) The state government — Study of administrative departments, par- 

ticularly with reference to city governments. Public service, 
tax and industrial commissions or departments. 

(6) Citizen cooperation with government — The function and activities 

of bureaus of municipal research, voters' leagues, city clubs, 
women's clubs. 

(7) National movements for betterment — The National Voters' 

League, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Society for the Pro- 
longation of Life, the Museum of Safety, the Anti-Tuberculosis 



40 THE PUBLIC SERVANT [April 

Association, etc. What they can do for your city and your 
state. 

(8) The chamber of commerce and its organization — The best form of 

organization. The committee system. The place of the sec- 
retary in the organization. A study of at least ten organiza- 
tions with reference to local conditions. 

(9) The activities of chambers of commerce — A review of the activi- 

ties of the chambers of commerce in the country during the past 
year. Part of the reading in this course will be current reading 
of at least ten of the periodical publications of chambers of 
commerce and their annual report. 

(10) A study of the National Chamber of Commerce — Its organization. 

Its activities. A careful study of its various referendums. 
The Nation's Business. Its opportunities. 

(11) The economic city — A study of the industries and other economic 

facts of five typical communities and of present efforts to help 
these communities. 

(12) The social city — A study of the social facts of five typical cities. 

Housing, public health, water supply and sewage, character of 
population, intemperance, vice, etc. Courses 1 1 and 1 2 run 
parallel. 

(13) Statistics — A study of the elements of statistics and graphic method 

of presentation of social facts. 

(14) Publicity methods — Newspaper stories, exhibits, street car adver- 

tising. Technique of presentation — relation to subject matter. 
Its relation to advertising. Novel publicity methods by cham- 
bers of commerce. 

(15) Public speaking. 

Field Training 

During the summer between the two years of the course, and for six 
months subsequent to its completion, students will be assigned to chambers 
of commerce for practical work. The secretary under whom the student is 
assigned will report currently on his work. A field supervisor from the In- 
stitute will visit him at intervals for criticism and helpful suggestion. 

During the course field work will be assigned whenever feasible. The. 
Cincinnati plan of alternate school and field work will be tried out in this 
field. There is no reason why it should not succeed. 



1916] SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE 41 

Short Courses 

The secretaries of chambers of commerce cannot withdraw from their 
positions for training. Short courses of one or two weeks on the subjects 
listed above will be given three or four times a year. 

From time to time various advanced courses will be announced for sec- 
retaries who have had some training and who desire further work. These 
will deal with special problems as they are discovered in the field investiga- 
tions of our men. 

Long courses will be arranged for intensive work. Subjects will be 
taken up and carried right through from day to day. This arrangement will 
make it possible for secretaries who can leave their positions for a few weeks 
to take advantage of any particular class of courses or course in which they 
are interested. 

Correspondence Courses 

These courses may also be secured by correspondence after the first year 
of the operation of the Institute. 

Reference ana Research Department 

An integral part of the plan of the Institute is the collection of material 
on the work of all chambers of commerce and of all efforts in this country and 
in foreign countries for community betterment. The institute will work in 
cooperation with existing facilities in Madison, the Wisconsin Legislative 
Reference Library and the Municipal Reference Library in connection with 
the University of Wisconsin. 

The organization of such a department as this is necessary to keep the 
various courses outlined above up-to-date, and to answer the inquiries that are 
received in connection with the publications mentioned below. 

The Larger Plan 

It is probable that within two years there will be established at Madison 
an institution for political and administrative research. This institution will 
work in cooperation with the work for training secretaries of chambers of 
commerce. Dr. McCarthy and Dr. Fitzpatrick who are both active in the 
organization of the institution for political and administrative research advise 
us that cooperative arrangements can be easily made and will be. 

An Official Organ 

For graduates of the Institute and for those taking any of the courses for 
secretaries in the field who desire to be kept informed of the developments 



42 THE PUBLIC SERVANT [April 

in the work, and to make really effective other parts of the plan, the monthly 
publication of national scope that will deal with all phases of the problem of 
improving our cities is fundamental. 

It will record currently all efforts for community betterment throughout 
the country. It will send men to make field investigations of particularly 
noteworthy efforts. It will be interested not merely in the results but in the 
methods by which the results were accomplished. 

It will give considerable space to statements of constructive plans for 
community betterment by leaders from all sections of the country. 

It will note currently important municipal ordinances, state legislation 
and orders of commissions that are significant as forward steps in municipal 
advance. 

It will give the news currently of various community clubs, particularly of 
chambers of commerce all over the country. 

It will have the ordinary divisions for book reviews, notices of writings, 
etc., etc. 

What Can Be Done About It? 

We should be glad to take up with any group of interested persons, the 
United States Chamber of Commerce, departments of economics in univer- 
sities, or wealthy men, the working out of the program outlined herein. We 
have outlined it for Madison, Wisconsin, but it might be organized in Minne- 
apolis, St. Paul, Washington, Chicago, New York, Boston, St. Louis or 
San Francisco, or centers might be organized in each of these places or in 
some of them. 

(Continued from page thirty-four) [\ y acknowledge the obligation I shall 

wealth Servicer Edwin Clyde Robbins owe to tW The opportunities open 

tells the story. We hope he will retell it to me here for securing training, meals 

: .1 i r i D A. j an d vision tor lire 1 deeply appreciate 

in these pages before long. Rather than . , i i i 

. vi .- i i . r and regard as a sacred trust, and do 

comment on the article, let us quote a few , . 5 , , , , . , „ , 

passages from it-you can make the com- hereby pledge ™ y h °"?", ^ ll sha11 be 

ment. Professor Robbins says: mym0St deeply ^ henshed pUrp ° S A '" 

<<a^l r r> i \s render as bountiful a return to the Ure- 

At the suggestion of Professor Young, . , , . . r . . 

tdi j r>, . j i . , gon people and their posterity in raith- 

Pledge Day was instituted, on which occa- 7 , , , , . , 

.i (-* j i i. .. • i i rul and ardent devotion to the common 

sion the Governor and other distinguished , .„ . . Tin 

-.•^r. „n .i tt • • good as will be in my power. It shall 

citizens address the University on mat- , , . , ,. f , , r , 

\~ v * ~t ^ -^ l , tl be the aim or my lire to labor tor the 

ters ot community betterment. The stu- T . , , , , , 

i Q „. . r ii - . highest good and glory ot an ever 

dents, in turn, formally recognize their ,T , 

• r - it. I . greater commonwealth, 

civic responsibility by rising en masse in 

assent to the following pledge: "Machinery was already installed by 

'As a student of this University main- which the energy and enthusiasm gener- 

tained by the people of Oregon, I heart- (Continued on page forty-six) 



1916] SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE 43 
Training for tne Municipal Service 

E J ward A. Fitzpatnck 

"My final note is most significant of all," says Mr. Childs in an article 
in the July number of the National Municipal Review, on "How the com- 
mission-manager plan is getting along.' * "It concerns a letter received a 
while ago from a California school boy. He admits that he has not stood 
any too high in his studies, but he has decided that he could do great good 
to thousands of people as the manager of some city (of course a small one 
at first) and can I please tell him what and where to read and study as a 
preparation? ^Forsooth A4unicipal administration in America an iri- 
descent dream for youths!" Place along side of this from President Low- 
ell's article in the January number of the Review the words he puts into the 
mouth of a reincarnated De Tocqueville: ' 'In the industries you have 
men with special training ; men who are not only experts in the highest sense, 
but who liave been carefully educated in schools for the purpose ; and, in 
fact, there is no country where there are better schools for special training 
than here, — law schools, medical schools", schools for engineers; but while 
you are doing that in your industrial life, you are not doing it in your gov- 
ernment. You are not using experts in the public service to the same 
extent as every other civilized people in the world.' He would go one step 
further. He would observe — and it is a common saying in the United 
States — that of all the kinds of government in this country the least success- 
ful has been the government of great cities. He would also observe that 
it is in those very cities that we use the expert the least; and, perhaps, being 
De Tocqueville, he could see some connection between those facts." 

These are the terminal factors in the problems of training men for the 
municipal service. The need in government is for the trained administra- 
tor, and the youth of the land aspires even in its infancy to serve mankind 
in that capacity. The need is for educational institutions that have the vi- 
sion to satisfy the call of young men to public service and the need of the 
public service for the trained man. 

The question may very pertinently be asked whether the universities of 
the country are meeting these obvious needs of individuals and society for 
the higher work of government. The question may also be raised whether 
the high schools may not adequately perform some of this service. 

The Society for the Promotion of Training for Public Service is fre- 
quently in receipt of inquiries similar to that of Mr. Childs. We should 
like very much to have the administrators of education in this country con- 



* Italics are ours. 



44 THE PUBLIC SERVANT [April 

sider the questions raised by one of our correspondents recently. The let- 
ter is quoted in full : 

At the suggestion of Mr. R. E. (Miles of Ohio I am writing to you in search of 
information as to the agency which you represent, in behalf of my son now a junior at 
Dartmouth college, who has become interested in the practical affairs of municipal gov- 
ernment and management, and thinks he would like to specialize for his life work 
along those lines; possibly reaching finally the position of city manager. He now 
plans to take the Tuck school of administration and finance, with one year of the course 
post-graduate. 

Can you give him any light as to how and where he may go on from that point 
in both study and some work which will be remunerative ? He will be obliged to earn 
his way. What do you think of the opportunities for a livelihood, in the future, in 
such work? Can one find positions covered by civil service which will be more than 
clerical and mechanical? Must one take chances of political upsets and non-employ- 
ment in looking forward to constructive and large municipal service in the future? 

I shall be exceedingly grateful for any help you may give me in answer to these 
rather comprehensive questions. 

Will any of the (college authorities in this country answer this letter for 
public information? We should be glad to print the replies in the Public 
Servant. It would give us an insight into the present facilities for training 
men for public service that we could get in no other way. To start the ball 
rolling, we gladly publish our reply to this letter : 

I am very glad indeed to have your letter of September 27. We are glad, too, 
to learn of your son's interest in municipal government and that you are anxious to set 
him on the right road. We have received within the past few months several letters of 
this type. We have talked to a number of young men who have the same interest. 

We have repeatedly put up to universities the opportunities of service which these 
letters offer to them. I regret to say that as a general rule nothing really practical is 
done. During the last year the University of Michigan announced a course in public 
administration with field work in bureaus of municipal research, but as the field work 
is not supervised it does not seem to be a particularly good arrangement. The Uni- 
versity of Texas is beginning to develop in this direction. 

The New York bureau of municipal research has associated with it a training 
school for public service where men can go and get actual experience in governmental 
administration and be allowed a stipend which presumably covers liying expenses but 
varies according to the experience of the student. There may be possibilities there 
that would be worth looking into. 

Specifically with reference to your son, it seems rather a pity that he must spend 
three years more in academic work pure and simple. However, if your plan of con- 
tinuing him in the Tuck school prevails, we may have organized at that time an insti- 
tute built somewhat on the plan of the Cincinnati school of engineering of which I shall 
say a word later. We shall be glad to keep you informed of any developments in 
the future. 

In the past the city manager positions have been opened up almost exclusively to 
engineers. This has been due to the fact that in the past the city manager plan has 



1916] SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE 45 

been adopted in the smaller cities where the physical city was the fundamental prob- 
lem. Public work was the prime interest of the people and hence the demand for en- 
gineering ability. Though more and more the social city is coming to the front, per- 
sons trained in this work will increasingly secure positions as city managers, but that is 
a matter of future development. It would seem desirable for a young man with a two 
year substantial foundation in a college like Dartmouth, with the ultimate goal of ser- 
vice in municipal administration, to specialize in the engineering phase of public ad- 
ministration, always utilizing his leisure for the other side. This is particularly true in 
the light of the fact that at the present time the University of Cincinnati has entered 
into Co-operative arrangments with the city of Cincinnati. A course of instruction can 
be secured which will combine theory and practice to secure the best educational and 
informational results, and during this period of learning the young man engaged in this 
work will be earning a reasonable salary. Mr. Miles of the Ohio institute of public 
efficiency could give you more information about this. I would suggest that you write 
directly to Dean Herman Schneider of the college of engineering of the University of 
Cincinnati. 

As to your more general questions. Municipal administration is more and more 
furnishing opportunities of permanent work with adequate compensation and even the 
possibility of a civil pension. However, the ideal is not at the present time an ac- 
complished fact, but the work of the Philadelphia civil service commission as described 
by Mr. Van Dusen in a pamphlet issued by the Women's auxiliary of the Massachu- 
setts civil service reform association, and by the president of the New York civil ser- 
vice commission, Dr. Moskowitz, in a pamphlet just issued, indicates the trend of the 
movement. You probably know now that most of the civil service commissions are 
adopting what is called non-assembled examinations for experts in place of the old 
competitive personal examinations. In Wisconsin experts are exempted from the ordi- 
nary examinations of the civil service commission and men are selected from all parts 
of the country to serve government. We are engaged ourselves in the effort to remove 
the local residence requirement for public service. At the present time therefore while 
there are chances of political upsets and non-employment for those looking forward to 
constructive and large municipal service, the chances are becoming less and less. 

You must recall, too, that in the large number of civic clubs organized in this 
country, in the bureaus of municipal research and in chambers of commerce, splendid 
opportunities are offered for large municipal service for trained men. The transfor- 
mation of the purposes of these organizations in the recent past opens up a broader field 
and is an encouragement for anybody to adequately train himself for the work. For- 
tunately these civic clubs have, as a general rule, looked over the country in selecting 
their secretaries. Home industries and home folks are not especially protected in this 
field. (Signed) EDWARD A. FlTZPATRICK. 



UNIVERSITIES AND PUBLIC SERVICE 

Price, one dollar, postpaid 

Society for the Promotion of Training for Public Service 

Box 380, Madison, Wisconsin 



46 



THE PUBLIC SERVANT 



[April 



( Continued from page forty-two) 

ated on Pledge Day could be transformed 
into practical results. This was an old 
custom requiring the students each "year to 
perform a piece of work in recognition of 
the debt of gratitude they owe the Univer- 
sity. The contribution in recent years has 
been the construction of cement sidewalks 
on the campus. More and more the De- 
partment of Economics and Sociology has 
tried to impress upon the minds of students 
that in thus aiding their University they are 
at the same time lightening the burden of 
the tax payer and thereby promoting the 
general welfare. The Department be- 
lieves that seed thus sown will bear ample 
fruit in the lives of these young men and 
women after leaving the college halls." 

He continues: "As soon as a commit- 
tee was appointed to draft a workmen's 
compensation bill, the Department at once 
sent all its available data bearing on con- 
ditions within the State. The graduate 
student who had made original investiga- 
tions along this line was hired by the com- 
mittee to continue his studies. His services 
proved so valuable that later, when a per- 
manent compensation commission was or- 
ganized, he became its salaried statis- 
tician." 

Again: "The Department believes the 
time has arrived when % it is advisable to 
state with some completeness its ultimate 
goal. This goal is the organization of a 
School of Commonwealth Service, a divi- 
sion of University education wherein the 
social obligations laid upon the institution 
are definitely and gladly accepted, and 
wherein students are furnished with facts 
and technical training which permit them 
to leave the university informed as to their 
social duty and equipped to perform it." 

Finally: "Such a school should give 
training for public administration. If Ore- 
gon's great experiment in democracy is to 
be crowned with success, if government by 
the many is to replace that by the few, 
then the citizens of Oregon must give to 



public administration the same efficiency 
and faithful service that today character- 
izes private undertakings. There is a cry- 
ing need in every part of the State for 
trained municipal managers. The day is 
passed when the people will be satisfied 
to permit political henchmen to occupy po- 
sitions of trust. There is an ever-increas- 
ing demand for managers of municipal ad- 
ministration, for public accountants, and 
for irrigation, drainage, harbor, and dock 
superintendents. A School of Common- 
wealth Service should prove its capacity to 
qualify young men and women for these 
positions. Thus the University would ful- 
fill its purpose as a cog in the machinery 
of State." 

Professor Robbins outlines a curricu- 
lum, but we are planning to discuss the 
general subject shortly and hence leave 
that phase of his discussion without com- 
ment or quotation at this time. 



The American City Bureau announces 
the second "Summer School for Commer- 
cial Organiation Secretaries." It is in- 
tended for the man who wants to be a 
commercial organization secretary, for the 
secretary who is facing unsolved problems, 
and for the secretary who has "arrived" 
(if he exists). It is a practical way of 
meeting a very great opportunity. "The 
American City Bureau is induced," says 
the announcement, "to organize and con- 
duct this Summer School for Secretaries 
partly because its own need of trained men 
is so acute that some source of supply must 
be provided." 

Mr. Williams' proposal on page 35 
suggests a comprehensive way of dealing 
with the problem which the American City 
Bureau has so keenly felt. For its pio- 
neering work Mr. Buttenheim and the 
American City deserve the best wishes of 
everyone interested in chamber of com- 
merce work and unofficial citizen coopera- 
tion in the service of the community. 



1916] SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE 47 



The Community Extension Work 
of the University of Kansas was 
made the subject of some remarks by Mr. 
C. H. Talbot, head of the Municipal Ref- 
erence Bureau of the University of Kan- 
sas, at the Second National Conference on 
Universities and Public Service. He said 
in part: "The scope of the requests re- 
ceived covers a wide variety. Here is one, 
from a city clerk. 'Herewith I am send- 
ing you an electric light franchise which 
has been submitted to the mayor and com- 
missioners of this city. Before acting on it 
they would be pleased to have you look it 
over, and request that you give your opin- 
ion on it and note any change you deem 
advisable.' A study of the franchise dis- 
closed a number of changes badly needed. 
Suggestions were made for the safeguard- 
ing of the interests of the public in the mat- 
ter of control of rates and service, the se- 
curing of an adequate municipal purchase 
provision and the elimination of the 'irrevo- 
cable twenty-year term grant* feature of 
the grant, and the ordinance was redrafted 
and returned to the city. The city clerk 
later wrote extending the thanks of the 
mayor and commissioners for the sugges- 
tions embodied in the redrafted permit. 
The redrafted ordinance was submitted to 
a vote of the people of the city, was 
adopted and was duly accepted by the 
grantee." 

It is a good sign when universities will 
specifically advise communities on subjects 
such as these. There are today many 
universities both publicly supported and 
privately endowed that would hesitate 
about answering such an inquiry and would 
then refuse. Keep up the good work, 
Kansas! You are now doing a service 
that all universities will be doing in ten 
years. And this recognition of the social 
duty to place its knowledge at the service 
of society is a first step and a long one in 
training men who can give such services to 
communities in the interest of the commu- 
nities. 



Mr. Frank A. Vanderlip is noted for 
his international mind in finance. His 
mental activity has a cosmic sweep.' It 
is this thinking in terms of five continents 
that has made him one of the world's 
leaders in finance and the National City 
Bank one of the great world-banking in- 
stitutions. But to carry out his world 
program Mr. Vanderlip has turned to a 
sound educational basis for its develop- 
ment. Hence the proposed plan of co- 
operation by the National City Bank 
with the universities of the country to de- 
velop, through co-ordinated theoretical 
and practical instruction, trained men 
who will be needed to meet the responsi- 
bilities of America's new international 
economic position. It is a good sign for 
the country that men of Mr. Vanderlip's 
type see clearly the educational basis for 
progress, that they see in education the 
real preparedness for national crises. It 
is fortunate, too, that education means 
something different to them than the 
schoolish, bookish, unrelated thing that 
so frequently goes by the name of educa- 
cation. Mr. Vanderlip's role as educa- 
tional reformer is becoming. But readers 
of his "Business and Education' will see 
in this latest proposal developments of 
ideas that were remarkably well put in 
his book of nine years ago. The plans 
for the training of public servants advo- 
cated by the S. P. T. P. S. are in accord 
with the fundamental ideas and methods 
of the plan proposed by Mr. Vanderlip 
for training men for banking. The de- 
tails of the National .City Bank plan will 
be discussed in The Public Servant at an- 
other time, — we hope by Mr. Vanderlip 
himself. It concerns us now only to 
note how business inspired by a vision of 
its opportunities, freighted with great so- 
cial responsibilities and having the will to 
succeed, turns to an educational program 
as its foundation. Government will 
some day learn this same lesson. 



Society for the Promotion of 
Training for Public Service 

A National Civic Organization 



Its Program 

Improvement of public administration. 

Making public service a profession. 

Practical training for public service. 

Harnessing civil service reform to an educational program. 

Widest community service of our educational institutions. 

More agencies of accurate public information. 

More effective civic organizations. 

Extension of the part-time principle in education. 

Removing local residence requirement for public service. 

Welfare work for public employes. 

Its Methods 

Publicity — a monthly bulletin. 

Personal assistance. 

Research and constructive investigations. 

The Bureau of Information. 

The Drafting Bureau for Social Legislation. 

The National Conference on Universities and Public Service. 

Your Cooperation is Desired 

Fill in the following form : 



Society for the Promotion of Training for Public Service 
Box 380, Madison, Wisconsin 

Enclosed please find $ for which enroll me as a 

member of the S. P. T. P. S. for the year ending December, 1916. Please send me 
The Public Servant regularly. 

Name 



Add 



ress 



Associate membership $3.00 a year. 
Active membership 5.00 
Contributing " 10.00 " 

Donors " 100.00 " 

Founders 1 000.00 or more. 



I 









ss? 



ftbe public Servant 

"There can be no higher ambition than that of serving the state, nothing more creditable than to serve it well. ' ' 



Number 4 
May, 1916 



Issued Monthly except July and August, by the 

Society for the Promotion ot Training for Public Service 

Madiion, Wisconsin 



This Issue 
25 cents 



^llllll!llllllllllllllllllll!lllllllllllll'!;l'!i:illll!lll!llllllllllilllll^ 



To Newton D. Baker 

public servant, formerly city solicitor and mayor of Cleveland, and now 
Secretary of War, able administrator, soldier of. the common good, this 
number of 

The Public Servant 

is dedicated because he has efficiently administered a great city, be- 
cause he disregarded the local residence qualification in selecting his ad- 
ministrative personnel, and because he has demonstrated that experts 
may be effectively used in the interest of democracy. 



^riiiiiiitiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiN^ 



Gabriel or Lucifer? 

This desire to substitute law for public sentiment and individual responsi- 
bility, has been particularly noticeable in the matter of the civil service laws. 
Often those interested in eliminating political and religious considerations 
from appointment to office, and of making of the public service a real instru- 
ment of public good and efficiency, have felt that the whole problem was 
solved when satisfactory laws were enacted. We have only to look around us 
on any side to see that the best laws, in the hands of designing men, may be 
made to thwart every public sentiment which gave them birth, unless that public 
sentiment is eternally vigilant and insistent. Civil service reformers must be on 
their guard constantly to see that the demand for honest and efficient govern- 
ment shows no sign of lessening. 

I have always felt a very strong sympathy with the thought of the late Carl 
Schurz, who declared that he would rather have the laws made by Lucifer and 
executed by Gabriel, than made by Gabriel and executed by Lucifer. In other 
words, the first object of all organizations like this League and the National 
Civil Service Reform League must be to create sound, solid, substantial senti- 
ment in favor of efficient, democratic government, and then help guide that 
sentiment, when created, along sound lines. — Clinton Rogers Woodruff. 



50 



The Public Servant 



[May 



£be IPubiic Servant 

EDWARD A. FITZPATRICK, Editor 



Issued Monthly by the 




'fit i. ,»»• 
Madison, Wis. 



Board of Trustees 

Charles McCarthy .... Madison, Wis. 

F. G. Young- Eugene Oregon 

Winston Churchill .... Cornish, N. H. 
Clarence G. McDavitt . . . Boston, Mass. 

Will C. Hogg Houston, Texas 

Zona Gale Portage, Wis. 

Neil Gray, Jr Oswego, N. Y. 

John S. Murdock . . . Providence, R. I. 

Parke R. Kolbe Akron, Ohio 

Charles M. Fassett . . . Spokane, Wash. 

Director 
Edward A. Fitzpatrick . . Madison, Wis. 



We commend to civil service reformers 
the statement: "What you would have 
in your nation you must first put into your 
schools." 



We are profoundly interested in civil 
service reform. It is a necessary factor in 
any program for making government better 
serve the public welfare. We unreserv- 
edly extend our cooperation to civil service 
reformers everywhere. We invite their 
cooperation. 



President Dana in his address before 
the National Civil Service Reform League 
said: "We believe that the civil service 
system should no longer be limited to the 
selection of fit persons for entrance, but 
should be extended to cover the whole sub- 
ject of efficiency in the government serv- 
• »» 
ice. 

With that statement no one, we think, 
will disagree. If that is the principle upon 
which Mr. Dana is to conduct his admin- 
istration of the Civil Service League, it is 
like a "new call to the colors of civil serv- 
ice reform." It means that civil service 
reform is coming out of its legalistic shell. 



It means that civil service reform will pass 
from its state of "innocuous desuetude." 
It means that civil service reform will be 
positive, not negative. It means that civil 
service reform will cease to be dilettante. 
It means that civil service reform will be no 
longer protestant, but constructive. It 
means, among many other things, that civil 
service reform will be interested in training 
for public service — practical training for 
public service. 

It amazes us that civil service reform 
has so long neglected this necessary foun- 
dation. If fit men must be selected for 
public office, fit men must be trained for 
public office. The supply will create the 
demand. That being so, civil service 
must not be satisfied to select, as President 
James of the University of Illinois says it 
has in the past, "the least incompetent of 
candidates." It must, as President Dana 
says, induce young and able men to enter 
the public service. And if, we repeat, it 
is going to do that, it must catch them in 
our educational institutions; it must make 
the atmosphere of these institutions stimu- 
lating to the young man who hears the call 
to public service; and it must see to it 
that these institutions provide opportuni- 
ties for the coordinated theoretical and 
practical instruction of men for the public 
service. Then, too, it must work in the 
public administration itself, and Mr. 
Dana's statement is pertinent. "The 
League believed that it was of the utmost 
importance that young and able men should 
be induced to enter the public service and 
that one of the best ways to secure this re- 
sult was to let it be known that all men 
who would devote themselves to the public 
service as a career would receive recogni- 
tion by promotion to the highest offices 
which their worth deserves." 



Persons interested in education for pub- 
lic service or for business should read Dr. 
Pratt's first annual report as Chief of the 
Federal Bureau of Foreign and Domestic 
Commerce. It is immensely worth while. 

A word to the wise is sufficient ! 

(Continued on page sixty-seven) 



Public Service a Career for Trained Experts: A Possibility 

Richard H. Dana,* 
President, National Civil Service Reform League. 

Although our universities and colleges, supported or endowed, either 
or both, by public and private aid, are educating experts in almost every 
branch of science, the public service of nation, state and city is making but 
little use of such men. It is true that experts are now being used to a 
greater extent than formerly but the experts are few, they are hardly ever 
in control of the operating departments, their advice is overridden and 
their conclusions ignored for the sake of political advantage. Let me il- 
lustrate. The public is now taking great interest in good roads but what 
is the situation? As a concrete example let me take the investigation 
into the construction of New York State roads on which roads millions of 
dollars were being spent. The official report not only showed that barrels 
of tarvia, which had been bought at a cost of three cents a gallon over the 
market price for political purposes, had been buried, hundreds of barrels 
thrown over a cliff and vast quantities wasted, but when it came to the in- 
spection the inspectors were, for the most part, thoroughly incompetent and 
the inspection "totally inadequate." The work was approved where the 
contractors were in favor of the powers that be and work held up no matter 
how well done if the contractor failed to contribute to the same powers. 

The former occupation of some of these inspectors is as comic as it is 
illuminating. Among them were found barbers, tailors, bakers, bar- 
tenders, and prize fighters. There were, however, a few trained engineers, 
not of the highest ability but still of some capacity, that had been selected 
under the civil service system — the best men could not be got for the rather 
unattractive conditions of the service — but it was found that their reports 
were ignored, their advice seldom followed and if they were persistent and 
made public complaint, they were removed to out-of-the-way localities. 

Using Experts in the Service of Popular Government 

"But," someone might fairly ask, "do you mean to substitute govern- 
ment by experts for government by the people?" By no means. But 
rather to use the advice and work of experts to aid the people in self govern- 
ment. On what lines, then, should the position of the expert be estab- 
lished? Settling the public policies must in some practical way be com- 
bined with the expert service. Now the combination devised by leaders in 
municipal and civil service reform has been somewhat along the following 



* Prepared for the Second National Conference on Universities and Public Service, 
Boston, August, 1915. 



52 The Public Servant [May 

lines : first, to divide all the -public service into two parts, one the policy de- 
termining and the other the operating and never to have the same man un- 
dertaking both. The policy determining functions should be placed in the 
hands of representatives chosen by the people. The operating department 
should be in the hands of experts free from partisan strife and with tenure 
during capacity, good behavior and loyalty to the policies decided on. 
Then it is recommended that these two branches of the service would work 
together in practice as follows : the experts should suggest policies and ex- 
penditures, the representatives of the people would decide how much of 
these suggestions should be adopted and how the money is to be raised, 
and then the experts would be responsible for the operation, under the ap- 
propriations and policies thus laid out. 

Is this system only in the minds of reformers or is it in actual operation 
anywhere? It is in operation in the cities of England and Germany and 
in the city of Pans in France. In Germany the so-called "mayor" is 
really the head of the operating department. The title is somewhat mis- 
leading. The German cities have a chairman of the City Council who 
corresponds more to our mayor or the mayor of a municipality in Great 
Britain. The German chief expert with his high title has a long engage- 
ment sometimes lasting as much as twelve years. He is, however, not a 
oiicy determining functionary. He only advises and then carries out. 
The chief clerk of an English city with a much more modest title is still 
again the chief operating official. He is a well-educated man, trained in 
law and finance and in the larger cities receives his position by promotion 
from among the head clerks of the smaller cities, receiying sometimes a sal- 
ary of $15,000 or $18,000 a year. The same general system applies in 
Paris. Not only is there one chief expert but each operating department 
has its expert head. In recommending the budgets, however, if each ex- 
pert were left to himself he might demand more for his department than the 
finances of the city could stand if added to the expenditures recommended 
by each of the other heads of departments. Therefore, in these foreign 
cities a board is made of the heads of the various operating departments, 
and this board considers the relative demands of all the departments and 
makes the suggestion as a board and not as individual members and all 
with reference to the total amount that can be reasonably raised by taxation. 

How could such a system be applied to this country? In a commis- 
sion governed city the supervisors are already the policy determining men. 
It would then only be necessary to secure experts at the heads of the oper- 
ating department and give them full control of the operations subject onl\ 
to supervision. In a municipality governed by a mayor and city council, 
the mayor with the chairmen of the committees of the council would super- 
vise the work. Some have thought that in large cities, especially, the 
mayor should have a sort of cabinet of supervisors each to supervise a num- 
ber of departments both to aid the mayor in laying out the policies, and to 
see they are carried out, honestly and efficiently, but without having "a fin- 
ger in the pie." 



1916] Public Service a Career for Trained Experts: A Possibility 53 

Speaking of public policies, a careful analysis shows that there are not 
as many public policy decisions as is generally supposed, and some of the 
policies have more to do with operating service than with the desires of the 
public and some of these policies are bad. For example, cheap construc- 
tion of roads to make a good showing about election time but which will 
not last, is one of the policies frequently carried out by the municipal gov- 
ernment and another is the policy of giving contracts and purchase of sup- 
plies to political favorites, or contributors to the party campaign fund or to 
the pockets of influential politicians. Such policies are both bad, contrary 
to the wishes of the public, and are not, strictly speaking, public policies at 
all; they are nothing but policies of the "machine." 

The Basis in Present University Courses for Training Municipal Experts. 

But it has sometimes been objected that there are no municipal experts 
in this country suitable for such positions as heads of municipal operating de- 
partments. In one sense this is true to a considerable degree. There are ra- 
ther few experts with the actual experience in municipal work. They are not 
given the opportunity. But, on the other hand, we have a large number of 
men specially educated and trained in all those essential things that are neces- 
sary in order to turn out experts in municipal service on very short notice 
and many of them have been long employed in civil life in work closely 
analogous to and sometimes of the very kind undertaken by municipalities 
and have shown great organizing and executive ability in such operations. 
An examination of the catalogs of our leading colleges, universities and 
technological institutes shows that they teach not only all the fundamentals 
needed to make municipal experts such as mathematics, science, govern- 
ment, etc., or more in detail, bacteriology, chemistry, medicine, needed for 
the health department, the examination of milk and water, engineering and 
mechanics, necessary for building roads, sewer systems, pumping plants and 
other engineering municipal work, law for the law department, architecture 
both building and landscape for public edifices, city parks and planning, 
electricity for public electric plants ; but we find special courses for munici- 
pal undertakings in the catalogs, as for example, road building in which not 
only all the materials and processes and all the drainage and engineering 
questions involved are treated but the students are carried out to inspect 
roads in process of construction, roads already completed and those worn 
out, under instructors able to show the advantages and disadvantages of 
all that is seen, but also road building is actually carried on by some of the 
universities, as for example, in the University of Illinois, on which the stu- 
dents in these courses are put to work in all its various aspects so that the 
students may know it not only theoretically but in actual practice. They 
have other courses such as public water supply, milk inspection, sewerage 
disposal and the like, going into the most up-to-date methods employed in 
any country of the world. 

But as it is today the public service is not an attractive career. Indeed 
it can be hardly said to be a "career" at all to the well-educated and 



54 The Public Servant [May 

trained expert. As already stated, when in public service he lacks power 
and influence such as would make the work attractive to an active and am- 
bitious man and the higher positions to which he would look forward as the 
crowning point of his career are filled with outsiders then the highest point 
that can be reached is that of chief assistant. 

- >~ ; Selecting Experts by New Civil Service Methods 

Now assuming that public opinion could be educated to the point where 
we would put the operating departments under the control of permanent 
experts and separate the policy-determining officials from these operating 
chiefs, how could the operating chiefs be selected? For the most part, in 
the large cities they would eventually be selected by promotion, the assist- 
ants being appointed under the civil service system and the most capable 
and industrious and those with the most executive ability would receive the 
promotion. But as it is today, the larger part of the assistants, having no 
career before them and the service being so little attractive to suitable men, 
are not of the quality to be promoted. Also new departments are some- 
times made which would require at once the selection of chief experts with 
no one in line for promotion. How then can these be chosen so as to re- 
lieve their choice from political favoritism and also to secure the very best 
men available? The advance methods of the civil service system — such 
methods as have now been tried for fifteen years, with the greatest success, 
solve this question in the opinion of the leaders in municipal and civil ser- 
vice reform. This new method is now called "the unassembled investiga- 
tion of careers." It is called "unassembled" because the candidates do not 
meet m one place as in the ordinary civil service examination, and "investi- 
gation of careers" because all the education, training and achievements of 
the candidates are considered. In these investigations for the very highest 
positions there are no questions and answers such as appear in the ordinary 
civil service examination and the weighing of the experience of the candi- 
dates and the grading of them by their careers, is not done by the ordinary 
civil service examiners or by the civil service commissioners themselves but 
through the aid of a board or jury usually composed of three eminent spe- 
cialists in the particular branch of expert service for which the particular 
investigation is carried on. Let me illustrate. For selecting the chief li- 
brarian of the City of Chicago with its enormous library and numerous 
branches which was done under the civil service system, the jury consisted 
of Mr. Herbert Putnam of the Congressional Library of Washington and 
the chief librarians of the Crera library of Brooklyn, New York, and of the 
University library of Illinois, all eminent specialists. The vacancy and 
general statement of the kind of civil service investigation were advertised 
not only in the Chicago papers but in the leading library journals and 
many prominent daily papers throughout the United States. In co-opera- 
tion with the Civil Service Commission of Chicago searching questions re- 
garding the education, training and achievements were sent to each of the 
candidates at their homes, where they were filled out and returned to the 



19/6] Public Service a Career for Trained Experts: A Possibility 55 

Civil Service Commission. Then this was examined by the special jury, 
and all who were clearly, from lack of training, education or experience, 
unfitted were dropped out. For the rest, a series of carefully prepared 
questions were sent to those for whom the candidates had done important 
previous work asking the kind of work, the exhibitions of executive and 
organizing ability and the power to get on with and influence men. The 
answers to those queries were carefully revised' and finally the candidates 
were given reports of the library and financial department of the City of 
Chicago and were asked to write a thesis suggesting how best the library 
could be administered to the best advantage of all concerned, namely, the 
city on the one hand as an economic unit and the citizens as users of the li- 
brary. The person selected was Mr. Henry Edward Legler. He, with 
a fine education, had had the experience of devising the university exten- 
sion sy_stem and public service work of the University of Wisconsin, had 
been secretary of the Wisconsin Library Commission and had devised meth- 
ods of library use of such great utility that they were being copied all over 
the United States and he had shown wonderful ability in going before com- 
mittees of the legislature and proving to them the needs of the university 
with marked success. 

Now this is not one unique and accidentally successful civil service ap- 
pointment. It is only one of very many. The system began with the se- 
lection of the supervising architect of the United States some fifteen years 
ago. Then it was applied to the selection of the heads of many of the Bu- 
reaus, especially those of the Agricultural Department, for which positions 
men of high scientific education in their specialties and executive and organiz- 
ing ability were required, and the success with which these departments 
have been established and carried out under experts selected in this way is 
the best proof of the applicability of the system. Among other positions I 
may mention that of the head of the United States Bureau on Road Build- 
ing and Road Materials. 

In the city of Los Angeles the enormous water supply that was to cost 
many millions was put into the hands of engineers selected in the ordinary 
way. The work was going to pieces, little was accomplished and an enor- 
mous amount of money had been wasted. Then the board in charge was 
re-organized and all the engineers from top to bottom were selected by the 
civil service system, and after that the work was accomplished rapidly, eco- 
nomically, without taint of fraud, and with the most complete success. 

Even assistants to the attorney-general at Washington and assistant so- 
licitors and attorneys in states have been selected in this same way ; also the 
chief engineer of the city of Chicago, engineer in charge of bridges, city 
auditor, the chief street engineer, the building inspector in chief, and numer- 
ous other officials with salaries from $5,000 to $8,000 a year, and lately 
in Philadelphia the chief engineer and his assistants for the new subway de- 
velopment and other experts with salaries even as high as $10,000 a year, 
the heads of departments, with one or two exceptions in Colorado, the sec- 
retaries and chief examiners of civil service commissions in several states 
have also been chosen by this same process. 



56 The Public Servant [May 

The division engineers in the state of New York who are required to 
have charge of the construction, re-construction, maintenance, and repair 
of state and county highways are now under the civil service system with 
full approval of Commissioner Carlisle. 

In Kansas City the chief engineer, the assistant chief engineer, the su- 
perintendent of streets, and some other municipal experts, have been ap- 
pointed through competition, and in New York City the chief engineer of 
the Board of Estimate and Apportionment is under the competitive merit 
system. Indeed, these are only some of the many examples which I could 
give you. 

Do able men enter these civil service tests? The best answer to that is 
found in the twenty-ninth report of the United States Civil Service Commis- 
sion where it says: 

"Examinations of this character have been found to attract men of the highest 
type. A belief in many quarters that no distinguished expert or person of high pro- 
fessional or scientific attainments will compete in a civil service examination is a fal- 
lacy." 

Men holding such positions selected in this way are wonderfully free 
from political influences in their various operating departments. Their 
successors can only be chosen by a competition of the same sort so the mo- 
tive for creating a vacancy to reward a favorite is taken away. Lt. James 
Reed, assistant director of the department of Public Works of Philadel- 
phia, in a paper read at the meeting of our National Civil Service Reform 
League in 1913 not only commended this method of selection as having 
worked with perfect success, but he also showed and proved that by this 
method of the selection and retention of experts, the municipal contracts 
had been taken out of politics in Philadelphia — that city long known as 
being under the domination of political contractors. The only difficulty 
now remaining, as has already been suggested, is that the opinion of these 
experts especially in state and municipal service is often overridden by su- 
perior political head: who are given indefinite power to control the public 
operations. To prevent this we need only to separate the policy determin- 
ing from the operating positions, give full responsibility to each for its func- 
tions and keep each within its respective spheres. 

Summary 

To sum up: we here show a plan by which the public money can be 
wisely used, genuine public policies carried out, those policies established 
with the advice of trained experts and specialists, a public career offered to 
well-educated and trained men from our universities and technolog'cal in- 
stitutes and many corrupting influences in politics eliminated and all citi- 
zens, rich and poor alike, getting full benefit in the expenditure of the pub- 
lic funds. Is not this a cause stimulating the imagination, well worth our 
best efforts, and in the end a ground of satisfaction to all who have lent a 
hand in having it firmly established? 



How Stall Men te Developed in the Public Service? 

William C. Beyer, 
Philadelphia Bureau of Municipal Research. 

One of the most recent evidences of our growing determination to have a 
trained and efficient public service is the new emphasis which is being 
placed on the development of employes. The movement toward civil ser- 
vice reform which began in this country about thirty years ago has effected 
great improvements in the methods of recruiting the service, but for the most 
part it has not kept in touch with employes after their appointment. Dur- 
ing the last decade, however, and particularly during the last three or four 
years, efforts have been made to deal with the employment problem, not 
only at the entrance of the service, but within the service itself. These ef- 
forts are based upon recognition of the fact that no matter how much native 
ability and enthusiasm a new employe may possess, if he is left alone with- 
out incentive and without special training for his particular line of work, 
he will fail to realize his fullest possibilities both for himself and his em- 
ployer. 

In order to obtain a more definite idea as to what is being done in our 
public service to develop employes, we shall therefore inquire briefly into 
(1 ) what incentives are provided in the service and (2) to what extent spe- 
cial training and instruction are given to employes. 

Incentives in the Public Service 

The most powerful incentive that can be provided in any service, 
whether public or private, is the prospect of advancement in salary and 
promotion in position. A prize that means better economic conditions, a 
more comfortable home and greater opportunity for self-expression is al- 
ways more attractive than a mark of distinction which is incapable of im- 
mediate translation into these primary requisites of human well-being. 
Our inquiry, therefore, leads us into a cursory examination of the condi- 
tions of advancement and promotion in the various branches of government 
service. 

Unfortunately it is necessary to dismiss a large portion of our public 
service with the statement that it is still outside the pale of the merit sys- 
tem and therefore has not even taken the first step toward an equitable 
scheme of promotion. To a young man who is planning a career of pub- 
lic usefulness, the spoils system holds out very little encouragement in the 
way of prospects of advancement. If he does not resort to pulling political 
wires his chances of rising in rank under a spoils regime are very poor indeed. 

In the remaining portion of the public service, that is, in the federal civil 
service and in the civil service of ten or our forty-eight states and of about 



58 The Public Servant [Map 

two hundred and fifty counties and cities, the conditions of promotion are 
more favorable, due primarily, of course, to the application of the merit 
rule. It must not be imagined, however, that exactly the same conditions 
obtain wherever civil service laws are in operation. There are, in fact, 
wide variations in the rules and practices affecting advancement and pro- 
motion in different branches of the service within the scope of the merit sys- 
tem. 

To a limited extent in the federal service, and also in state and munici- 
pal services, employes are promoted by their department heads, subject only 
to the formal approval of the civil service commission. This method is 
open to the serious objection that it provides no safeguard against favorit- 
ism or the play of political influences, and accordingly it is being gradually 
abandoned. 

The method of promotion by competitive test is much more satisfac- 
tory. It gives all employes who are seeking advancement an opportunity 
to match their wits and records in a fairly conducted race, with the prize 
going to the winner. To be sure, the appointing officer usually has the 
discretion of choosing any of the three men ranking highest on the resulting 
eligible list, but nevertheless, the possibility of political favoritism is not 
nearly so great as it js when there are no restrictions of any kind. 

The most serious drawback to the competitive test in promotions is the 
fact that it does not take sufficient account of an employe's actual efficiency 
in the performance of his daily work. This weakness has been recognized 
for a long time and a number of civil service commissions have endeavored 
to correct it by making efficiency, measured by a system of efficiency mark- 
ing, a factor in promotion examinations. Our two largest cities, New York 
and Chicago, and also a number of smaller cities, have adopted the idea of 
maintaining individual efficiency records, and in Chicago it has achieved a 
certain degree of success. In most of the other experiments, however, the 
results have been somewhat disappointing. It still remains to be seen, 
therefore, whether or not the idea is workable. 

The problem of promotion is affected also by the degree of standard- 
ization that obtains within the service. Unless the various employments 
have been properly classified and graded and salaries have been brought 
into adjustment with duties, there can be no orderly nor equitable applica- 
tion of any scheme of promotion. 

Until very recently, however, this phase of the problem has not re- 
ceived any systematic attention. Rates of pay were fixed with slight re- 
gard to the character and grade of work to be performed, with the result 
that positions involving exactly the same kind of duties frequently paid 
widely varying salaries. When civil service commissions came to classify 
positions, they naturally adopted salary rates as the most convenient basis 
for grading, but did not thereby help the cause of equity in promotion. In 
fact, under a classification of this kind, it is possible that promotion in grade 
and salary may mean actual demotion in character of work, and vice versa. 

A movement to correct these conditions was inaugurated in Chicago 
less than ten years ago and has since grown very considerably in propor- 



1916] How Shall Men be Developed in the Public Service? 59 

tions. The civil service commission of that city, in co-operation with the 
city council, made an intensive study of the entire service under their juris- 
diction, and, as a result of this study, put into effect a sweeping standard- 
ization measure. All positions of the city government were classified, ac- 
cording to the general character of the duties involved, into eleven distinct 
services, and the positions in each of these classes or services, in turn, were 
divided into grades according to their relative importance, authority and re- 
sponsibility. A separate salary schedule was established for each grade 
and, with a few exceptions, applied uniformly to all positions within the 
grade. Promotion from one grade to another was made subject to a com- 
petitive promotion examination, but advancement from a lower to a highei 
salary rate within the same grade was determined on the basis of seniority 
and efficiency, the latter being ascertained by a system of efficiency mark- 
ing. The system was so designed that a person beginning as office boy at 
a salary of about $300 a year could advance step by step to the position of 
chief clerk, which pays over $3,000 annually. 

During the last three years a number of other cities and counties have 
undertaken similar programs. Among them may be mentioned Portland, 
Oregon; Los Angeles county and Oakland, California; Houston, Texas; 
St. Paul, Pittsburgh and New York City. Philadelphia, Milwaukee, 
Dayton and Seattle have begun studies looking toward standardization, and 
the states of New York, Ohio and Wisconsin have made considerable 
progress in the same direction. The civil service commissions of many 
other states and cities have gone on record as favoring a thorough-going re- 
vision and standardization of the employments in their respective services. 

Another consideration that is vitally important in connection w th the 
problem of promotion is the possibility of reaching the higher grade posi- 
tions and offices by competitive methods. Until about fifteen years ago, it 
was thought impossible to obtain suitable material for technical and admin- 
istrative work of a high order by civil service examinations, and examining 
boards confined themselves largely to providing lists for less important em- 
ployments. Now they are striking out boldly and extending competition 
to the very highest non-policy determining offices in the service. Expert 
positions paying as much as $6,000 a year are filled almost as a matter of 
course by the newer methods of examining, and even $10,000 posts have 
been filled successfully in the same manner. To be sure, this upward ex- 
tension of the merit system as yet is limited to comparatively few branches 
of the public service, but it is within reason to hope that during the next ten 
years the skyline of competition will be lifted in practically all other 
branches in which civil service reform has begun its work. 

In general we may say that, while conditions of promotion in the pub- 
lic service vary considerably, and are far from ideal in many places, there 
has been constant progress in the right direction. If we may look for as 
much improvement during the next decade as we have witnessed during the 
last, then it is not at all unlikely that at the end of this period, even the most 
advanced of our private business concerns will find themselves outstripped 
by the government in providing conditions of promotion that serve as in- 
centive for self-development. 



60 The Public Servant [May 

Besides the prospect of advancement and promotion in the service, 
there are various minor incentives which though relatively unimportant, 
should not be entirely ignored. In the department of public safety in 
Philadelphia, for instance, it has been the practice of the director to issue 
orders of commendation to members of the police and fire forces who have 
distinguished themselves by making important arrests or by performing acts 
of heroism. The same idea has been carried a trifle farther in Minneap- 
olis where the President of the civil service commission for several years 
has offered annually a gold medal to be awarded to policemen and firemen 
for acts of heroism and conspicuous bravery. Often employes in profes- 
sional services are encouraged to contribute articles to technical magazines 
and thus widen their mental horizon as well as clarify their understanding 
of the concrete problems confronting them in their daily work. The pub- 
lication of a departmental journal is still another means sometimes used of 
calling employes out of their ruts and rousing them to a fuller sense of their 
possibilities. All of these devices have decided limitations, to be sure, yet 
each one of them affords the opportunity of achieving a certain amount of 
distinction and to that extent serves as an incentive. 



Special Training in the Public Service 

Passing from the subject of incentives for self-development, we now 
come to the question of what is being done to give special training and in- 
struction to employes in the public service. 

In a general way, it may be said that efforts to supplement the training 
and education of employes in public departments are mostly recent in 
character and are confined mainly to the larger branches of the service in 
which the merit system has been established. This should not be surpris- 
ing, however, for the same kind of activity was not undertaken by private 
employers until a few years ago, and then only in the bigger and the more 
progressive establishments. It should be added, also, that the diverse 
needs of different classes of workers have made it extremely difficult, in 
private as well as in public service, to approach the problem of supplemen- 
tary training in a comprehensive manner. Most efforts along this line thus 
far have heretofore perforce been fragmentary. 

In considering the different ways in which government employes are 
being given special instruction, it is necessary to distinguish between educa- 
tional work carried on directly or indirectly by administrative departments 
themselves, and work of this character done by co-operating educational 
agencies on the outside. 

Among the earliest and the most successful attempts by administrative 
departments to give additional training to public employes, are the police 
and fire schools that have been established in a number of our larger cities. 
In these schools the new policeman or fireman, before entering upon active 
duty, is given a thorough grounding in the essentials of his work. His 
teachers usually are older members of the force, and his text book is the 
"manual" containing the rules and regulations of the department. Police 



1916] How Shall Men be Developed in the Public SeiVice? 61 

schools of this character now exist in New York City, Chicago, Philadel- 
phia, Cincinnati, Portland, Ore., Seattle, Oakland, Cal., and Dayton, 
Ohio. Fire schools are found in New York City, Philadelphia, Portland, 
Ore., Seattle, Oakland and Dayton. 

Similar work has been undertaken in different branches of the public 
service for other classes of employes. In Seattle, for instance, members of 
the lighting department attend regular evening classes in electricity and 
mathematics. The state civil service commission of Wisconsin has organ- 
ized lecture courses designed to assist various groups of employes in the 
state capitol, among them clerks and stenographers, policemen, elevator- 
men, and janitors. In New York city courses of lectures on the functions 
of municipal departments and on economic questions have been organized 
by a committee of city employes under the direction of the President of the 
Borough of Manhattan. These lectures are given by heads of city de- 
partments and by authorities in various fields of economic interest. The 
California civil service commission is giving special instruction to clerks and 
stenographers in its own office and hopes to extend the work into other divi- 
sions of the state service. In Los Angeles County, California, classes are 
being conducted, for the benefit of county employes, by some of the better 
informed persons in the service. During the past year, the commissioner 
of street cleaning in New York city has introduced the idea of instructing 
members of his department in the use of various tools and machines em- 
ployed in street cleaning work. 

Activities of this character are carried on, also, in the federal civil ser- 
vice. In the Department of the Interior, an organization of employes 
known as the "home club," and consisting of about 1,500 members, pro- 
vides at a nominal cost, instruction in languages, economics, parliamentary 
law, and other subjects in which enough members are interested to justify 
the formation of classes. In the Bureau of Standards of the Department of 
Commerce, employes have organized clubs which meet after working hours 
and have special lecture courses as part of their program. These co-opera- 
tive educational efforts on the part of employes nearly always receive en- 
couragement from the authorities in charge. 

The work of co-operating educational agencies outside the service in 
the main has been as fragmentary and as unsystematic as that done by ad- 
ministrative departments themselves. There are evidences, however, that 
in the near future the educational resources of these agencies will be 
brought to bear more effectively upon the problem of giving further training 
to public employes. 

The most encouraging sign in this connection is the effort being made 
at the present time in New York City. For several years both the College 
of the City of New York, which is a municipal institution, and New York 
University had been offering extra-mural courses in the Municipal Build- 
ing for the special benefit of men and women in the city's service. In Aug- 
ust, 1915, Mayor Mitchel appointed a committee of six, headed by Henry 
Bruere, to bring about closer co-operation between the institutions engaged 
in this work and a better adaptation of courses to the needs of city em- 



62 The Public Servant [Map 

pioyes. After some consideration of the problem this committee appointed 
two "advisory committees," composed of city officials, one on engineering 
courses and one on clerical accounting and business courses, to act as coun- 
sellors to the educational authorities on matters of curriculum and adminis- 
tration. The immediate supervision of instruction was entrusted to a 
single director. 

Under this co-operative plan only persons in the service of the city and 
of the public service commission for the first district of New York may reg- 
ister for courses. The fees charged are reasonably low. In order not to 
interfere with the city's work, classes meet during afternoon and evening 
hours. The courses offered cover a wide range of clerical and engineer- 
ing subjects and are especially designed to assist employes in their regular 
duties in city departments and to help them in securing advancement and 
promotion to higher grade of service. Persons doing clerical work, for in- 
stance, may take instruction in English composition, secretarial duties, ad- 
vanced stenography, reading stenotype records, statistics, bookkeeping prac- 
tice, principles of accounting, accounting practice and municipal accounting. 
Engineering employes have opened to them such courses as algebra, plane 
and solid geometry, trigonometry, calculus, engineering drawing, survey- 
ing, tneoretical and applied mechanics, structural design, reinforced con- 
crete design and construction, water supply, sewerage and sewage disposal, 
highway engineering and other similar courses. Those who are interested 
in more general subjects may attend classes in public speakkig, French, 
German, economics, municipal sociology and modern philanthropy. During 
the first term under this new plan 269 persons were enrolled in various 
courses — not a staggering number when compared with the fi.6,000 em- 
ployes in the city service of New York, but a beginning nevertheless. It 
would seem that in time this idea can be developed into one of the most ef- 
fective means of supplementing the training of men and women who are al- 
ready engaged in public service. 

Tendencies in the same direction may be observed in a number of other 
places. In Cincinnati employes of the city are encouraged to avail them- 
selves of opportunities offered by the night classes in the local university. 
In Seattle courses of special interest to city employes are given by both the 
state university and the city board of education. To a limited extent pub- 
lic employes in Wisconsin and Minnesota avail themselves of extension 
courses offered by the state universities. Federal civil servants located in 
Washington, D. C, have numerous opportunities to obtain further training 
in night classes in different educational institutions. In Philadelphia the 
local Y. M. C. A. offers a number of courses that are of interest to em- 
ployes in the city service. In Minneapolis a representative of the local bu- 
reau of municipal research is conducting evening classes in accounting for 
the benefit of employes in the city controller's office. All of these efforts, 
though small in themselves, are indicative of the drift toward closer co-op- 
eration between our educational agencies and the public service. 

The whole problem of developing employes in government service, as 
shown in the foregoing, is still far indeed from solution, but during the last 



1916] 



Some Aspects of the Model Civil Service Bill 



63 



few years encouraging progress has been made and, in a measure, the lines 
of further advance have been laid down. Civil service commissions, for 
instance, will have to extend their functions beyond those of mere recruit- 
ing agencies and address themselves to employment problems within the ser- 
vice. It is particularly important that they give more attention to condi- 
tions of promotion in order to provide greater incentive for self-development 
among employes. Administrative departments also can do a great deal 
by giving special training to new appointees, as is done in police and fire 
schools and by encouraging the organization of classes for the study of sub- 
jects pertinent to departmental work. Various educational institutions that 
are strategically situated can perform a great service by adapting their 
courses and hours of instruction to the needs and convenience of government 
employes. A proper co-ordination of efforts along all of these lines should 
take us a long way toward a better trained and a more efficient public ser- 
vice. 



Some Aspects of the Model Civil Service Bill* 



Civil Service and Training for Public 
Service 

We have been very much interested in 
the subject of civil service reform. We 
have regretted that civil service reform was 
something by itself, that it was not re- 
lated to the whole movement for the im- 
provement of the public service. Our spe- 
cial hope has been that civil service reform 
would be hitched to an educational pro- 
gram and it is that phase of the civil serv- 
ice reform movement in which I am espe- 
cially interested and which the Society for 
the Promotion of Training for Public 
Service, which I represent, is aiming to 
bring about in the United States through 
the educational institutions. 

It may interest you to know that this 
work was made possible at the beginning 
through the generosity of a distinguished 
fellow-citizen. Mr. Walter Stern. His 
continued generosity, too, has made our 
subsequent work possible. 



♦Remarks on certain phases of the mod- 
el civil service bill by Edward A. Fitz- 
patrick, at the meeting of the Wisconsin 
Republican House, Milwaukee, November 
6, 1915. 



Civil Service Legislation in the Future 

I am sorry to say at the beginning that I 
cannot agree with Mr. Katz that the 
model civil service law is a splendid ex- 
ample of simplicity and clearness of ex- 
pression. Any ordinary person would get 
quite lost in the midst of the innumerable 
details and in the midst of the many words 
where few would have done. We ought 
to learn to frame our laws, particularly a 
civil service law, so that an ordinary citi- 
zen could pick it up and know what it 
meant. Some day we will make our civil 
service laws similar to other laws that we 
are now drafting. 

We say in substance that a factory or 
other manufacturing establishment must be 
safe and we ask the industrial commission 
to determine what is safe in a particular 
instance. We say to a railroad that they 
may charge only reasonable rates and we 
put the question up to the railroad com- 
mission to determine in specific instances 
what are reasonable rates. So some day 
we may say that only men shall be selected 
for the civil service who are fit and meri- 
torious and then put the question up to the 
civil service commission as an administra- 



64 



The Public Servant 



[Map 



tive matter to determine what are fitness 
and meritoriousness and by what methods 
they may be selected. We shall say that 
a man shall be removed for cause and then 
put it up to the commission to determine 
in a general way and specifically what is 
a "just cause." But that is a question 
for the future rather than for the present. 

Selection of Civil Service Commissioners 

Two questions are made the subject 
matter of discussion today, ( 1 ) how shall 
civil service commissioners be selected, and 
(2) the general subject of removal in the 
public service. 

The civil service commission is merely 
the employment agency of the public serv- 
ice. It deals, or ought to deal, with the 
whole problem of employment in the pub- 
lic service. In connection witi employ- 
ment there are a number of questions of 
policy that are involved that are more than 
administrative. Ordinarily too, a .civil 
service commission will be a judicial body 
at the question as to how civil service 
and will ultimately be an appellate body 
arising in questions of employment between 
department chiefs and subordinates. It is 
from this point of view that we should look 
commissioners shall be appointed. In an 
article in the January number of the Na- 
tional Municipal Review, President Low- 
ell of Harvard has some very pertinent 
remarks on the subject. He says: "I do 
not care what subject you are dealing with, 
if you do not have an expert on the one 
side, and a board representing the public 
on the other, the management is not likely 
to be permanently satisfactory. A rail- 
road company, for example, must have a 
railroad man as president, and a board of 
directors which keeps him in touch with 
the public. That principle is applicable 
everywhere in industrial companies, in 
charitable or educational institutions, and 
in public affairs." 

If the problems of employment in the 
public service are placed in the hands of 
an expert board, such as the model civil 
service law contemplates, and there is no 



representative of the lay opinion, it will 
tend to develop a bureaucratic, a self-suffi- 
cient, and thereby an inefficient organiza- 
tion. The expert must be protected from 
himself so his absorption in his subject may 
be counter-balanced by the wider per- 
spective of the lay board. The public 
must be satisfied that they possess an ade- 
quate method of control over these expert 
officials. If the foregoing point of view 
is correct, then the details of the plan for 
the selection of commissioners in the model 
civil service law need not be discussed be- 
cause the commissioners should not be ex- 
pert and they should be selected by the 
highest elective authority. There should 
be provision, however, for relatively long 
terms in this board, say for six years with 
one member going out every two years so 
that control of the commission could not 
be easily placed in the hands of a single 
governor even if a governor is so venial 
as to want to pervert the civil service idea. 

Removal of Public Officials in the Civil 
Service 

I turn now to the second subject on the 
program, namely, the removal of public 
officials in the civil service. The ques- 
tion of removal is intimately connected 
with a large number of other subjects and 
ought properly to be discussed with them. 
It is intimately connected with the subject 
of grievances, for example, and it is inti- 
mately connected with the subject of the 
classification of the civil service. If we 
look at it from the standpoint of modern 
management two elements are involved in 
it. Modern management accepts as one 
of its functions the continued training of 
men in service. Therefore the question 
of the removal of a man may be both a 
question of efficiency of the management 
and the efficiency of the individual, but 
these general subjects we cannot take up 
at this time. 

Removal of Exempts 

There are two classes of officers for 
which specific provision ought to be made. 



1916] 



Some Aspects of the Model Civil Service Bill 



65 



There are the members of the exempt class 
and the members of the classified service. 
Members of the exempt class include the 
department heads and the various mem- 
bers of commissions. At the present time 
the latter particularly ought to be pro- 
vided for specifically either in the law or 
the rules and regulations of the civil serv- 
ice. 

Public opinion is clamoring for popular 
control. The method of removal by the 
executive is not frequently used. Of 
course it is a rare thing for an executive 
in public affairs to remove one of his chief 
lieutenants. It is done only in a crisis. 
The recall is one method of responding to 
the public demand for control. Dr. Mc- 
Carthy in his book, "The Wisconsin 
Idea", has gone so far as to urge the re- 
call for the heads of the commissions. 
This suggestion is not likely to be fol- 
lowed, however, unless all other methods 
have failed. In the last legislature Sena- 
tor Brav introduced a bill which provides 
for another method of dealing with the 
situation, namely, the method of legisla- 
tive question. The opening part of the 
bill provides simply for the opportunity of 
the legislature to question an administra- 
tive officer, but the essential part so far as 
we are now concerned may be quoted in 
full as follows: 

"Upon the joint petition of six mem- 
bers of the senate, not more than four of 
whom shall belong to the same political 
party, and seventeen members of the as- 
sembly, not more than nine of whom shall 
belong to the same political party, filed 
with the presiding officer of the senate, 
requesting an examination of any state of- 
ficer or employe before a joint session of 
the two branches of the legislature, such 
officer or employe shall appear before such 
joint session of the legislature and answer 
written and oral interrogatories as to any 
matters included in subsection 1 hereof. 

"Upon the filing of any such petition, 
the presiding officer with whom the same 
is filed, shall forthwith fix a time not later 
than twenty days after the filing of the 
petition, for the meeting of that branch of 



the legislature, or the joint session of the 
legislature, as the case may be, before 
which such interrogation and examination 
shall be held. A notice of such meeting, 
together with a copy of the written inter- 
rogatories, shall be forthwith delivered to 
the officer or employe named therein. 

"The legislature may adopt rules and 
regulations to govern such examinations. 
All proceedings, including all questions 
and answers, shall be fully recorded and a 
copy thereof shall be transmitted to the 
governor within thirty days after the close 
of the examination. 

"Any such appointive state officer or 
any such employe of the state may, after 
an examination as provided in this section, 
be removed from office by a joint resolu- 
tion, adopted in each house by a majority 
of all members elected thereto. The 
power to remove appointive state officers 
and state employes provided in this sec- 
tion is additional to and shall not be con- 
strued as destroying the right of removal 
by other officers or persons." 

The committee on state affairs omitted 
the fifth section. The idea embodied in 
this proposition is now a law in this state 
as applied to the conservation commission. 
(See chapter 406, laws of 1915.) 

Classified Civil Service 

With reference to the classified service, 
the present civil service law in this state 
provides for the removal of persons for 
just cause which shall not be religious or 
political by the appointing officer. It ob- 
viously remains for somebody to define 
what shall be understood by the words 
"just cause." In the present law it re- 
mains for each individual department head 
to define it. In the model civil service law 
the word "cause" will need the interpre- 
tation of the commission. And so there 
would be need for further definition if 
the words "non-feasance", "malfeas- 
ance", "misfeasance", "inefficiency", or 
"conduct unbecoming a public officer" 
were used. 

The essential question raised by the 
provision of the civil model civil service 



66 



The Public Servant 



[May 



law is whether the subordinates in the civil 
service shall be dismissed by the civil serv- 
ice commission or by the department head, 
not merely as a ministerial act but on his 
own authority. In the interest of efficiency 
of administration it would seem to be de- 
sirable that the responsibility should be 
clearly and unmistakably placed on the 
department head. In the model law the 
possibility of a great organized machine, 
political or otherwise, within the public 
service seems to be easily possible when 
this provision is noted in connection with 
the provision for the appointment of the 
commissioner. 

Rather than spend the few minutes that 
lemain on a destructive criticism of this 
provision of the law, may I outline a pro- 
cedure that commends itself to me. 
Whether it should be included in the civil 
service law or in the rules and regulations 
of the commission is a matter of detail 
that is dependent on a number of things 
that cannot be discussed at this time. 

Removal for Inefficiency 

I should want to provide two distinct 
methods for the removal of subordinate 
public officials or employees, the one where 
the charge is inefficiency and hence an 
internal matter and the other where the 
charge is preferred by a citizen or tax- 
payer and concerns more directly the rela- 
tion of the department to the public. 
Where the question is an internal one in 
the department it seems to me a procedure 
somewhat like the following should be 
gone through. 

A man who is becoming inefficient 
should have at least one warning of the 
fact, and the superior officer ought to pro- 
vide in some way to help the man improve. 
Upon the continued inefficiency of the 
employee the question should be taken up 
informally by the immediate superior of 
the employee with the person next higher 
in authority to see if questions of tempera- 
ment are involved or if the matter war- 
rants further investigation. (This corre- 
sponds roughly to an indictment, namely, 



that the alleged facts warrant further in- 
vestigation.) The charges shall then be 
written out and copies handed to the su- 
perior officer and to the employee com- 
plained of. An answer shall be returned 
within five days and during this period the 
man may be suspended if necessary. If 
the higher officer, after receiving the writ- 
ten answer, wishes he may call an oral in- 
terview and his recommendation shall be 
submitted to the department head, who 
shall finally decide what action shall be 
taken. A complete copy of the record 
shall be certified to the commission, to 
the governor and to the individual em- 
ployee, together with the action of the de- 
partment head. The certification is made 
to the governor in case the executive should 
want to take the matter up with the depart- 
ment head. Moreover, if such a record 
is filed with the civil service commission 
and with the governor, the legislature, if 
it wishes to question such a man for un- 
fairness or other cause, will have a certi- 
fied copy of the record. Those imme- 
diately under the department head, e. g., 
chiefs of bureaus, should be removed after 
investigation by the civil service commis- 
sion as will be outlined later. The legis- 
lative question may be used with depart- 
ment heads. 

In the municipal field a procedure some- 
what similar to the one outlined above is 
used very effectively by Morris L. Cooke, 
Director of the Department of Public 
Works of Philadelphia. A copy of the 
form is printed in his last annual report, 
which by the way, is one of the most un- 
conventional and informing documents 
published by a city department in this 
country. 

If the questions involved are tempera- 
mental rather than strictly questions of in- 
efficiency, if the civil service is properly 
classified, the employee could be trans- 
ferred to a similar grade of work in an- 
other office at the same salary, where 
there would not be the personal clash. 
Fortunately steps are being taken in the 
Civil Service Commission of Wisconsin to 
provide for such classification. 



1916] 



Some Aspects of the Model Civil Service Bill 



67 



Removal for Charges Other than 
Inefficiency. 

If the questions involved are not so 
much questions of individual efficiency but 
of the relation of the department to the 
public and the charges are preferred by a 
citizen, then the investigation should be 
conducted by the civil service commission 
and under no circumstances should it be 
referred to the department for routine in- 
vestigation. The civil service commis- 
sion should prepare a fact statement of 
findings with recommendations as to pro- 
cedure, which shall be submitted to the 
head of the department for action. He 
should be free to follow out these findings 
or not, as he sees fit. The certification 
should be made as before, to the civil 
service commission, to the governor, to the 
individual complained of and to the citi- 
zen making the complaint. 

I fear that I have extended beyond the 
time which, through Mr. Ruggles' cour- 
tesy, I was permitted to have, but I should 
be glad to answer any questions that may 
be asked. 



(Continued from page fifty) 

There are civil service reform associa- 
tions in about eight states in a more or less 
active state. Let us make these more ac- 
tive and let us start new organizations in 
the forty other states. Chambers of com- 
merce, city clubs, municipal associations 
everywhere ought to make civil service re- 
form a prominent factor in their municipal 
program, just as some cities do now. 



Do you see the Congressional Record? 
If you do, turn, if you will, to the discus- 
sion of the rural credits bill — not to see 
how federal legislation may be used to per- 
vert the very ends it is supposed to accom- 
plish, but what the dominant group in Con- 
gress thinks and says about the "merit 
principle." Glance, too, if you will, at 
the army bill which is now before the 
President, for the same purpose. Then 
decide to do something. As a starter you 
might join a civil service reform organiza- 
tion (or begin one in your city or state) 
or join the Society for the Promotion of 
Training for Public Service, or do both. 



The Association of Urban Universities 
deserves congratulations for its appointment 
of a committee on field work, and the mak- 
ing of the findings of this committee the 
basis of its program at the next annual 
meeting. This promises discussion of spe- 
cific problems. The personnel of the 
committee inspires confidence, -and the 
scope of its inquiry, judging by the ques- 
tionnaire it is distributing, commands at- 
tention. It is pertinent. It is inclusive. 
It promises to be helpful. The question- 
naire may prompt the remark "Another 
questionnaire investigation!" But we 
feel certain that the committee will subor- 
dinate the questionnaire to its proper place 
— which is secondary. It will furnish 
clues to be later followed up by field in- 
vestigation. We look forward with con- 
siderable hope to a distinctive contribution 
to the movement for practical training for 
public service by the Committee on Field 
Work of the Association of Urban Uni- 
versities. 



Announcement! 

Conference on Universities and Public Service 



Philadelphia 



Novemher 15-16, 1916 



You are invited! 



Will You Enlist 

in the movement to make govern- 
ment prepared for ALL situations? 

Unpreparedness for war has re- 
vealed to us our amazing unpre- 
paredness for peace. 

Why not definitely help the move- 
ment for a trained personnel in gov- 
ernment so that government can 
meet its day-to-day necessities as 
well as the extraordinary situations 
of war? 

Why not now fill out the blank below 
and send it along? 

The Public Servant 



Society for the Promotion of Training for Public Service 
Box 380, Madison, Wisconsin 

Enclosed please find $ for which enroll me as a 

member of the S. P. T. P. 5. for the year ending December, 1916. Please send me 
The Public Servant regularly. 

Name __. 

Address „___ „ 

Associate membership $3.00 a year. 
Active membership 5.00 

Contributing " 10.00 " 

Donors " 100.00 " 

Founders 1 000.00 or more. 



ftbe public Servant 

' ' There can be no higher ambition than that of serving the state, nothing more creditable than to serve it well. ' ' 



Number 5 
June, 1916 



issued Monthly except July and August, by the 

Society for the Promotion ot Training for Public Service 

Madison, Wisconsin 



This Issue 
25 cents 



i . , ' ' ' ' , : , . ,. 



To Morris Llewelyn Cooke 

public servant, formerly director of the Philadelphia Department of Pub- 
lic Works and now acting director of the Utilities Bureau, expert in 
human engineering, devoted champion of public rights, trenchant critic 
of insidious influences in government and in education, writer of uncon- 
ventional, informing, understandable, municipal reports, this number of 

The Public Servant 

is dedicated because of his distinguished administration of the Philadel- 
phia Department of Public Works, because of his victory for the city 
of Philadelphia in the Philadelphia Electric Case, because of his own 
service in the interest of democracy and of his utilization of other ex- 
perts wherever located in the same interest, because he has made munic- 
ipal administration intelligible to the man-in-the-street, and because of 
his work in the Utilities Bureau. 



V ■■■ I . ■' i ■■ ., S 



Make It Exoteric! 

4CT F the ultimate purpose of the (social) sciences is to contribute toward 
the functioning of citizens within the social order as a whole, more 
than to set apart a field for the peculiar functioning of scholars within an 
esoteric academic order, our programs in the social sciences involve waste- 
ful failure of co-ordination and disproportionate degrees of attention to lees 
and more important aspects of social relations." — Albion W . Small. 



70 



The Public Servant 



[June 



Zhe [public Servant 

EDWARD A. FITZPATRICK, Editor 
Issued Monthly by the 




Madison, Wis. 



Board of Trustees 
Charles McCarthy .... Madison, Wis. 

P. G. Young Eugene Oregon 

Winston Churchill .... Cornish, N. H. 
Clarence G. McDavitt . . . Boston, Mass. 

Will C. Hogg Houston, Texas 

Zona Gale .. Portage, Wis. 

Neil Gray, Jr. ..... . Oswego, N. Y. 

John S. Murdock . . . Providence, R. I. 

Parke R. Kolbe Akron, Ohio 

Charles M. Fassett . . . Spokane, Wash. 

Director 
Edward A. Fitzpatrick . . Madison, Wis. 



Vicarious Service 

Recruiting for the military service is 
organized by our national government on 
a national basis with local agencies fairly 
well distributed over the United States. 
Recruiting for the civil service is an acci- 
dent, is unorganized, and in any real sense 
is not a serious concern of the United 
States government or of our other govern- 
mental agencies. It is left in the hands 
of private individuals to make whatever 
money they can out of it. We print in 
this number of The Public Servant the 
character of the appeal to the possible 
recruit. Ought not a government that 
permits such vicarious service be thor- 
oughly ashamed of itself. But what of 
us who stand by and permit it by our in- 
difference or connivance? What are WE 
going to do about it? 



Good News from Los Angeles County 

The Los Angeles County Civil Service 
Commission in cooperation with the county 
commission has taken one of the most im- 
portant forward steps in civil service ad- 
ministration that we know of. It is the 
provision of machinery in the civil service 
for taking persons young, giving them prac- 
tical training and thus opening up to them 
a career in the public service. During the 
period of training students reieive a small 



salary. The details of the plan we have 
asked Mr. F. E. Doty, Secretary and 
Chief Examiner of the Commission, to out- 
line for a future number of The Public 
Servant. 



Why Men Leave the Public Service 

We are very anxious indeed to get facts 
regarding men who leave the public serv- 
ice. We should be very glad, indeed, if 
you would send us the names of men who 
leave the public service with any special 
information you may have as to the cause. 
We shall be glad to follow it up. We 
have just begun a detailed study of the 
question. Your cooperation will be ap- 
preciated. 



William C. Beyer 

William C. Beyer, who contributed 
the article last month on "How Shall 
Men be Developed in the Public Serv- 
ice" is a member of the staff of the Phila- 
delphia Bureau of Municipal Research. 
He was formerly with Milwaukee's offi- 
cial Bureau of Municipal Research. He 
has since his graduation from the Univer- 
sity of Wisconsin been studying the ad- 
ministration of civil service. He is one 
of the promising young men in the civil 
service field. We shall hear currently 
much from Mr. Beyer that is fresh and 
significant on civil service subjects. 



Why Field Training? 

John Dewey in his new book on 
"Democracy and Education' gives the 
reasons from many angles. Among other 
things he says: "Z?p doing his share in 
the associated activity, the individual ap- 
propriates the purpose which actuates it, 
becomes familiar with its methods and 
subject matters, acquires needed sh(ill, and 
is saturated with its emotional spirit." 
But to see the social and psychological 
reasons for field training in both general 
and professional education you have to 
give the book a careful, slow reading. 
This new book does not read as smoothly 
as "School and Society", nor is it as 
clear — but a reading of it will be worth 
your while. Perhaps we shall review it. 
fully in our next issue. 



^IVliy Not for the Civil Service? 

T NIVERSITIES in response to the special needs of the present time 
are granting credit for work in summer military camps and for enl st- 
ment in the National Guard. The faculty of Dartmouth College has 
passed the following resolution: 

"Voted: That the Faculty recommend to the Trustees of the College that a credit 
of three hours towards a degree be granted for attendance at the Plattsburg Summer 
Camp or any other similar summer camp under the authority of the War Department 
during the summer of 1916. 

The conditions of such credit shall be : 

1 . That the student is enrolled in the College at the close of the present college 
year, and is eligible to return at the opening of the next college year. 

2. That he shall file with the Dean on or before July 1st a duplicate copy of his 
enrollment blank. 

3. That he shall attend the full five weeks period at the camp. 

4. That he shall secure from the authorities of the camp the certificate of competency 
and shall present the same to the Dean on or before October 1, 1916." 

The regulation at the University of Texas reads thus: 

"All students who enlist for active service in the National Guard will be given credit 
for all work taken during the spring term in which their standing is above a pass. This 
does not apply to conditions or back work. Minors must obtain permission from their 
parents or guardians before enlisting." 

Other universities have done likewise. 

Excellent ! 

But there is pressing need for enlistment in the civil service every day. 
And there is continuing opportunity ! 

Why not provide for similar credit and co-operation there? 

This greater service is before the universities of the country. 

Will you, Presidents of Universities and Members of Boards of Trus- 
tees, accept this opportunity to serve your country, your state, your city and 
your students? 



Conference on Universities and Public Service 

Philadelphia November 15-16, 1916 

You are invited! 



12 



The Public Servant 



[Ji 



Wnat Are You Going to Do About It? 



A letter from a city manager 

"I notice that you are interested in 
promoting public efficiency and ask if you 
have in mind any bright student who is 
making municipal affairs a feature who 
will come for the summer vacation to as- 
sist in reorganizing a small city's affairs 
along economic lines for efficiency. No 
pay, but lots and lots of experience in a 
nen> field. The only rvay to learn city 
management is to help manage." 



Another 

"Concerning the training of men for 
municipal work, and our conference this 
morning : 

"If they are available, we should like 
to try two men out this summer, during the 
vacation period, with the idea that one or 
both of them be eligible for the scholar- 
ships at the end of their collegiate courses, 
and that they spend their summer vaca- 
tions from now until that time, in work in 



"It is our present intention to put a 
man taking an engineering course into the 
Service Department, and the other one 
into the Welfare Department, and using 
these men, as time develops, in depart- 
ments in which they seem to be adapted. 

"If there are no men available in their 
early collegiate courses, the graduates 
would, of course be acceptable, you to 
use your own discretion in their selection, 
although it seems preferable to us to take 
them as early as possible in their collegiate 
courses." 



A young woman wants training for 
civic betterment work 

"Can you inform me how I can secure 
the training which will fit me to work in 
connection with chambers of commerce 
and women's clubs, etc., for civic better- 



ment, social survey and the like? Can I 
serve an apprenticeship and receive a 
small salary at the same time? 

"I have worked for organized charities 
and have organized in towns and cities for 
woman suffrage, both of which ought to 
be good foundation experience for this 
work." 



A student feels experience is really 
necessary before further study 

"Prof. Geiser has referred me to you 
as one who might give me material advice 
concerning the possibilities of practical mu- 
nicipal and civic work. I understand that 
you are particularly interested in investi- 
gating the field as it may be open to col- 
lege men, and I shall be exceedingly 
grateful for any information or advice 
which you may give me along that line. 

"I graduate from Oberlin in June, 
have done special work in political science 
and economics, and have been very largely 
impressed with the possibilities of the new 
field in civic work. I have done some 
practical work in our civic club. The 
question now arises as to how to get prac- 
tical work which will give me both experi- 
ence and opportunity within this field. I 
am financially unable to do further gradu- 
ate work, and I feel also that some sort of 
practical experience is really necessary be- 
fore I contemplate further study." 



An instructor in political science wants 
field training 

"You will doubtless remember receiv- 
ing a communication from me last Novem- 
ber, inquiring about the opportunity of 
working for an M. A. degree, and finally 
a Ph. D. degree through the American 
Political Science Association. 

"I received your material and I have 
read it over carefully. I am gratified in 



1916] 



What Are You Going To Do About It? 



73 



knowing that there is some effort being 
put forth to recognize the student who sees 
the need of gathering data for the ad- 
vancement of the social sciences. 

"The university here granted me two 
days a week to devote to securing an 
M. A. degree (while the university de- 
sires me to secure this degree as soon as 
possible, I Want eventually to get the 

Ph. D.) Since is only a 

short distance from , I entered 

the graduate department there, doing my 

work with Prof. , head of the 

Sociology Department. 

"Dean of the graduate de- 
partment has a hard and fast rule of not 
granting to non-residents (other than local 
graduates) a Master's degree without his 
having completed four summers in resi- 
dence, — no matter how many credits he 
earns as a 'special graduate student or 
part-time student.' // / were in residence 
I could secure the degree in one year, but 
by going over to the university for two 
days a week, and doing the work the resi- 
dents are doing there, I must work for 
four years and earn sixty-seven credits! 

"Now I do not wish to convey the 
idea that I am merely working for cred- 
its, — my undergraduate work as well as 
my other work will bear me out. But I 
dislike being held up and plundered in 
this matter about as much as I would in 
the buying of insurance or stocks. All I 
want is an honest square deal and a recog- 
nition of the modern point of view. 

"I maintain that under the proper su- 
pervision non-resident work, especially the 
sort I am doing now, is as important, or 
even more important, than the regular resi- 
dent work in a small college town. Es- 
pecially is this true in the fields of political 
science, economics and sociology, where 
much of the data has to be gathered from 
large industries, establishments and of- 
fices, — facilities not afforded by places 
the size of . I have been mak- 
ing a study in the handling of men in the 
large automobile industries in 



for Prof. 



I have gotten 



more education out of it and at the same 
time given the science and the business 
something worth while. Yet the Dean 
cannot see that this is of enough value to 
grant me credits that will count as resi- 
dence credits, though the work could not 



be dc 



resid 



encel 



"The Commerce Club of 



have asked me to conduct an industrial 
survey of the city, and to study especially 
the turn-over of labor and methods of 
hiring and firing employees, and to show 
the relation of these features of industry 
to the efficiency and economy of the busi- 
ness. A problem of this sort, in my es- 
timation, has much educational significance 
to the fellow who has had the educational 
and experience basis. Then, too, such 
work as this has a world of value to our 
social sciences and to industry and busi- 
ness. It seems to me that if the univer- 
sity is to stand for equipping men for mod- 
ern life it must give them more of an op- 
portunity to do such work and give them 
all the encouragement possible. But the 
University of does not recog- 
nize it. 

"I am asking you as to whether or not 
arrangements can be made at the Univer- 
sity of Wisconsin for doing a part of the 
work of M. A. degree in such lines of 
study as I have designated. If such ar- 
rangements can be made I would appre- 
ciate transferring my credits to Wisconsin 
and doing the required residence work 
there also." 



Our answer 

"I am very glad indeed to have your 
letter of June fifth. The situation you 
describe is fairly general. The man who 
really is doing the day's work in getting 
acquainted by personal contact with the 
facts that the universities are lecturing 
upon is put to considerable inconvenience 
in order to secure academic recognition. 
I know, however, that at Columbia Uni- 
versity this is not true, for I secured my 



74 



The Public Servant 



[/. 



higher degrees on the part-time arrange- 
ment. I am hoping that you will defi- 
nitely enlist in the work of helping others 
who come after you to secure more easily 
what you are attempting to. 

"Even the University of Wisconsin is 
not as liberal in this particular as the pri- 
vately endowed Columbia university. I 
am enclosing you herein the regulations for 
the master's degree partly in absentia. At 
the University of Wisconsin you see the 
situation is not a great improvement over 

, but is somewhat better. I 

am quite sure that the Departments of 
Political Science and Economics are de- 
partments that consent to securing the 
master's degree in absentia. You per- 
haps had better take up the question di- 
rectly with either Professor Chester Lloyd 
Jones or Dean Comstock of the Graduate 
School. 

"The situation which confronts you is 
the situation we are striving hard to better 
throughout the country and we are anxious 
to have the cooperation of those in univer- 
sities who really appreciate the difficulty. 
But in this particular toe are running up 
against as unintelligent a tradition as exists 
in any field, namely that to secure aca- 
demic recognition you must detach yourself 
from everything worth while." 



Hearing the call of the new municipal 
government 

"I am deeply interested in municipal 
government of the newer and cleaner type. 
It seems to me the rapid adoption of the 
commission and city manager city govern- 
ment will open up a new and attractive 
field, in fact create a new profession. Is 
it not true that specially trained men will 
he in demand, or will these positions con- 
tinue to be filled by business men as now? 
Now what is the best way to work into 
this field? I am an A. B. graduate of 
Ohio Wesleyan University, 1912. I 
took practically all the economics work 
under Prof. S. S. Groat. Should I best 
take up special work along this line in a 



graduate school. Would I be able to get 
a position after two years of work, say? 
What school is best in the United States? 
I am financially limited and cannot go too 
long. Or would it be as well to secure a 
minor position and 'grow up' with the field 
without special training? I have no in- 
fluential relatives or friends to make a 
place for me. 

"It seems to me a great service is to 
be rendered society in a saner, non-parti- 
san, business-like city government, and I 
want to spend my life striving to help 
realize this end." 



From an engineer of ten years' ex- 
perience 

"As I am anxious to secure a position 
in the line of civic development work, I 
am writing you to see if you can give me 
any information as to the necessary steps 
to be taken to get in touch with this class 
of work. I am especially interested in 
the possibility of obtaining a position as 
city manager or as industrial commissioner 
with some commercial club. 

"I am thirty-two years old and an as- 
sociate member of the American Society 
of Civil Engineers. For over ten years I 
have been engaged in engineering work, 
the last five of which have been devoted 
to the promotion of interest in all classes 
of municipal improvements and to the de- 
sign and construction of such improve- 
ments. I have had considerable experi- 
ence in the preparation of commercial re- 
ports on various industrial enterprises and 
as all of this work was handled in connec- 
tion with my private practice, you will 
realize necessarily I am versed in general 
business management. 

"While I consider that the above ex- 
perience should be of considerable value 
in the line of work in which I wish to en- 
ter, / a/so realize that there are many 
phases of this worJ^ in which I am defi- 
cient. If you can suggest any line of 
training in which I could engage and at 
the same time be self-sustaining, I would 



1916] 



What Are You Going To Do About It? 



75 



appreciate the courtesy if you would ad- 
vise me accordingly." 



From an engineer of fourteen years' 
experience 

"Your article in the 'National Munic- 
ipal Review', How Can We Work the 
University Graduate into Municipal Gov- 
ernment, has been thoroughly read by me. 
While I am not a university graduate, I 
am a college man having taken the civil 
engineering course and have had fourteen 
years' experience the major part of which 
has been in municipal and state highway 
work. Three years as city engineer of 
Meadville, four years in charge of work for 
the State Highway Department of this 
State, and two years in contract work. 
In this work I have been successful but I 
feel that there is a class of work along 
other lines or branches of municipal work 
which with my present experience will 
lead to higher things. 

"How will I proceed to qualify my-* 
self for the position of municipal mana- 
ger.-> 



From a mayor of a city of four thou- 
sand 

"My inclinations are such and my 
training, including my official experience, 
has been such that I feel that I should like 
to engage in securing better city manage- 
ment for our municipalities and hence my 
effort to get in touch with the situation 
and ascertain whether there is not an op- 
portunity for men of my training and fit- 
ness to enter the service of some progress- 
ive city as a prospective municipal expert. 

"My experiences have been such as men 
of my age, thirty-one years, have not 
usually had and this may be of advantage 
if I am to engage in municipal work." 



Some facts about him 

"I was graduated from the Southern 



Illinois State Normal University at Car- 
bondale, Illinois, in the class of 1903 and 
was Principal of the High School at New- 
ton, Illinois, for two years and then en- 
tered the University of Illinois in the fall 
of 1905. After two years in college I 
served a year as Principal of the High 
School in this my home town and then re- 
turned to the University and in June 1 909 
received the degrees of A. B. and LL. B. 

"Previous to this time I had married 
and my last year in college was also en- 
joyed by my wife who was also a graduate 
of State Normal at Carbondale and had 
been a High School Principal. Before 
my graduation in 1 909 I had taken the 
state bar examination and had been ad- 
mitted to the practice of law. 

"In August 1909 I was employed in 
the General Land Office, Department of 
the Interior, as a land law clerk and later 
as a special agent in protecting the public 
land and timber, and while so engaged 
was stationed at Little Rock, Arkansas. 
In May 1910 I was transferred to the 
United States Forest Service at the re- 
quest of that service and stationed at Al- 
buquerque, N. M., as Assistant District 
Forester, in charge of the office of lands. 
In June 1911, at the request of the Dis- 
trict Forester at Denver I was transferred 
to that point to fill a similar position, and 
remained there in charge of claims and 
settlement work until I voluntarily re- 
signed to enter upon the private practice 
of law at this place in October, 1912. 

"While located in Denver I was de- 
tailed by the Secretary of Agriculture, to 
deliver a series of lectures on Public Land 
Law at the School of Forestry, Colorado 
College, at Colorado Springs, Colorado, 
and the results of my efforts in that line 
were later put into permanent form and 
used as a basis for lectures in the Yale 
School of Forestry in preparing forest as- 
sistants for their work in national forests." 



Wnat Are You Going to Do About It?* 



*See number two of the Public Servant 
and watch for the heading - "Progress" in 
future issues. At least we are beginning to 



bestir ourselves, but what an opportunity Is 
before vis. What are we going to do about 
it? 



A letter from a "Civil Service School" 

No. 1 
Dear Sir: 

I am disappointed in not having re- 
ceived your application for enrollment. 
Certainly my special half-price offer with 
the privilege of easy payments was a very 
liberal one. It gave you the opportunity 
of obtaining a course in Civil Service that 
would assist you in securing a permanent 
position with regular vacations, good pay 
and a high standing in your community. 

Perhaps you are waiting for next pay 
day. This being true, I will hold this 
special half-price offer open for you for 
another fifteen days only. I hope that 
you will be able to take advantage of it by 
that time. 

I fully realize from the thousands of 
letters I receive from my students, that it 
is not always possible for them to send 
the full price of the enrollment with their 
application. I know that you have handi- 
caps, hardships, difficulties and disap- 
pointments the same as all of us. There- 
fore, to assist you in overcoming these ob- 
stacles, and to help you make this start in 
life at once, I am giving you the oppor- 
tunity of taking your course in Civil Serv- 
ice with me on easy monthly payments. 
All you need do to take this course is to 
simply enclose with your enrollment the 
first small payment as noted on the ap- 
plication blank and settle the balance in 
thirty or sixty days. 

As you know when you go to work for 
Uncle Sam, you are practically assured 
of a position for life. Promotion is fre- 
quent, pay liberal and sure, also the duties 
are pleasant and agreeable. In many po- 
sitions you have the chance to travel; for 
example, railway mail clerks have free 
railway transportation. 

All that is necessary to secure any one 
of the splendid positions listed in our book- 
let is to prepare yourself by my special 



training in the privacy of your home, after 
which I have no doubt that you can reach 
your goal of success. 

My positive guarantee of "A POSI- 
TION OR YOUR MONEY BACK" 
is your protection. A copy of this guar- 
antee numbered 1 20 was previously 
mailed you. This protection is positive 
proof of the absolute confidence that I 
have in my course of special training and 
what it will do for you. It is an ironclad 
guarantee that protects you and places me 
in a position to give you the individual 
training that you need. Think what this 
guarantee means. I take all the risk. It 
is the fairest, squarest, and most liberal 
proposition ever made by any school. 

Read the letters of gratitude and en- 
thusiastic recommendation from many of 
my former students. Their arguments are 
convincing, positive proof of the superior 
value of my special training and what it 
will do for you. 

Don't delay another minute. Take 
immediate advantage of the special low 
half-price advertising introductory offer 
that I am making you. Select the terms 
of payment that suit you best. Prepare 
yourself for the next examinations that are 
soon to take place. Send in your appli- 
cation today. Right now is the time to 
act. Tomorrow you may forget and 
"next week" never comes. Delay will 
never advance you in life. Your oppor- 
tunity is right here. 

Remember, my proposition in a nutshell 
is simply this: I give you the best in- 
struction in the shortest time at the lowest 
cost, — cash or instalments, and also re- 
fund your money if you are not success- 
ful. Think this over carefully — avail 
yourself of this splendid opportunity now 
before you — fill out the enrollment blank 
and send it to me today. 

Very sincerely yours, 

President. 



(progress in tbe XDlniversitfes 

"But forward look the land is bright" 



Western Reserve University 

A School of Applied Social Sciences 
will be opened at Western Reserve Uni- 
versity, at the beginning of the next aca- 
demic year. Training for municipal ad- 
ministration is a specific function of this 
school. The school is, in fact, a training 
school for public service and social work. 
Social work for the present at least will be 
more prominent. It will be graduate 
school with a two year course in which 
carefully supervised field work will be an 
essential part of the plan. 



At the College of the City of New York 

The College of the City of New York 
had been cooperating with the city authori- 
ties of New York in developing a plan for 
giving educational opportunity to men in 
the public service. This plan was in 
operation during the past year. During 
the past year Professor Frederick C. Breit- 
hut for a faculty committee on municipal 
service survey presented a very careful re- 
port with "recommendations for immediate 
action" which ought to be adopted in full. 
The recommendations included the ap- 
pointment of a "director of public service 
training" and a "college standing commit- 
tee on public service training" and con- 
cluded thus: "That the special courses 
to be recommended and their formal or- 
ganization be immediately taken up by 
the Director of Public Service Training 
with his Committee and all other depart- 
ments and agencies involved." 

The Board of Trustees have just ap- 
pointed a "Committee on Training for 
Public Service" which will deal not only 
with the training of those already in the 
service, but also of college students who 
look forward to entering the service. The 



Committee consists of President Sidney E. 
Mezes, Chairman, Professor Frederick B. 
Robinson, Vice-chairman, Dean Carlton 
L. Brownson, and Professors Harry C. 
Krowl and Frederick C. Breithut. May 
the Board of Trustees through this com- 
mittee put through all the recommenda- 
tions of the report of the Committee on 
Municipal Service Survey and then loo}? 
forward to the next opportunities. 



At the University of Texas 

The general faculty of the University 
of Texas voted at a recent meeting that 
the President of the University appoint a 
committee of seven to investigate the sub- 
ject of training for public service. 

The members of the Committee are : 

Prof. A. C. Ellis, Director of the Ex- 
tension Dept. 

Prof. T. U. Taylor, Dean of the En- 
gineering Dept. 

Prof. C. S. Potts, Assistant Dean of 
the Law Dept. 

Prof. Spurgeon Bell, Chairman, School 
of Business Administration. 

Prof. Herman G. James, Associate 
Professor of Government. 

Prof. A. B. Wolfe, Professor of Eco- 
nomics and Sociology. 

Prof. W. R. Manning, Adjunct Pro- 
fessor of Spanish-American History, and 

Prof. Charles G. Haines, Professor of 
Government, Chairman. 



Johns Hopkins University 

Announcement that the International 
Health Board has arranged to establish an 
institute of hygiene and public health in 
connection with Johns Hopkins Univer- 
sity at Baltimore, confirms the public 



78 



The Public Servant 



[/« 



health officer's work as a profession and 
gives a final denial to the saying — already 
obsolescent — that "any one can do public 
health work." 

The new institute of hygiene will be an 
essential part of the university co-ordinate 
with the medical school, for it is recognized 
that the profession of the sanitarian and 
worker in preventive medicine is not identi- 
cal with that of the practitioner of medi- 
cine. It requires a specialized training. 

The school will furnish educational and 
scientific opportunities of the highest order 
for training in all sciences related to hy- 
giene, sanitation and preventive medicine; 
and for the training of medical students, 
physicians, engineers, chemists and bac- 
teriologists in the principles of these sub- 
jects and, above all, for the training of 
those desiring to fit themselves for public 
health work in its various branches. 

Study of recent progress in preventive 
medicine and of the beginnings made in 
organized public health work convinced 
the International Health Board that an 
urgent need existed in this country for bet- 
ter opportunities for just such training as 
the new institute will offer. 

The Rockefeller Foundation will pro- 
vide funds for the purchase of a site and 
the erection of a suitable building near 
Johns Hopkins Hospital and the labora- 
tories of the medical school. The build- 
ing will contain special laboratories, such 
as those in sanitary chemistry, physiology 
as applied to hygiene, bacteriology, indus- 
trial hygiene, epidemiology and vital statis- 
tics. There will also be a museum, li- 
brary, etc. The institute will draw upon 
the university's medical and engineering 
schools for special instruction and upon the 
hospital and any other departments in its 
research work. Fully a year will be re- 
quired for the construction of the institute 
and the gathering of the staff, but it is 
hoped that by October, 1917, the insti- 
tute may be opened. Dr. William H. 
Welch will undertake the organization of 
the new school and will be its permanent 
director. He will be assisted by Dr. Wil- 
liam H. Howell. 



The announcement by the International 
Health Board includes public education by 
exhibits and lectures, the training of public 
health nurses, and cooperation with de- 
partments of health and the Public Health 
Service whereby opportunities will be af- 
forded for field work and practical experi- 
ence in the various branches of public 
health administration. 

This is by far the largest and most com- 
prehensive plan of public health training 
yet undertaken. Courses leading to the 
degree of Master of Public Health or 
Doctor of Public Health have been estab- 
lished at Harvard University, Syracuse 
University, the University of Kansas, New 
York University, and Ohio State Univer- 
sity. Columbia offers scattered courses 
and has not yet completed the organization 
of its hoped-for school of public health. — 
The Survey. 

(The Rockefeller Foundation deserves 
congratulations for this distribution of its 
funds. But now that the Foundation has 
thus distributed some of its funds, it may 
perceive that there are other branches of 
governmental seii>ice that need trained per- 
sonnel. May it have that light soon, and 
may it have the courage to follow it, even 
though it may lead to a new order of 
things that will not be stimulating to these 
large private foundations. — E. A. F.) 



Our Dedications 

Books are dedicated to admirable per- 
sons: why not separate issues of periodi- 
cals? A new journal, organ of a society 
for promoting training for public service, 
called "The Public Servant," hereafter 
will put on its first page a dedicatory trib- 
ute to some public servant. Each issue 
will vary, so far as the man or woman 
honored is concerned; but the test of eligi- 
bility will be the same. The first man 
so honored is Congressman Frear of Wis- 
consin, "courageous and pertinacious en- 
emy of the pork barrel and all its ways." 
Let the work go on ! Public officials get 
none too much of this sort of comment 
upon their acts. — Christian Science Moni- 
tor. 



The Platform Pledges 



Civil service reform still makes good 
platform material, but — 

The Democratic Plank 

The Democrats say: "We reaffirm our 
declarations for the rigid enforcement of 
the civil service laws." 

In the light of the record this is thrilling. 



The Republican Plank 

The Republicans say: "The civil serv- 
ice law has always been sustained by the 
R^epubliccn party, and we renew our re- 
peated declaration that it shall be thor- 
oughly and honestly enforced and ex- 
tended wherever practicable. The Demo- 
cratic party has created'since March 4, 
1913, 30,000 offices outside of the civil 
service law at an annual cost of 
$44,000,000 to the taxpayers of the 
country." 

And a Republican Congress has a nice 
little loophole in the "wherever prac- 
ticable" phrase. Does "wherever prac- 
ticable" modify "enforced" as well as 
"extended?" This is a question in poli- 
tics as well as in grammar. 



Specific Pledges 

These general pronunciamentoes on civil 
service are not worth much. What we 
want from political parties are specific 
pledges. And one of the specific things 
wanted is not a reaffirmation of faith or a 
renewal of declaration, but a definite prom- 
ise to repeal the present civil service law 
which puts the administration of the civil 
service law in the vest pocket of the Presi- 
dent, subjects him to all kinds of political 
pressure, and in the name of exceptions 
permits the continuous violation of the 
spirit of the civil service law, — AND what 
is wanted in place of this law is construc- 
tive legislation which will secure the in- 



dependence of the civil service commission 
and make possible a thorough going im- 
partial and efficient administration of gov- 
ernmental employment in the light of all 
the facts we know about both public and 
private employment. The so-called model 
civil service bill does not meet such a need. 
(It indicates, however, that civil service 
reform may have to be delivered from civil 
service reformers.) 



Specific Pledges — an Example 

From the viewpoint of public admin- 
istration the plank in the Democratic plat- 
form on government employment is very 
significant — and potentially of great power 
for good. The plank reads: 

"We hold that the life, health and 
strength of the men, women and children 
of the nation are its greatest assets, and 
that in the conservation of these, the fed- 
eral government, wherever it acts as the 
employer of labor, should both on its own 
account and as an example, put into effect 
the following principles of just employ- 
ment: 

/. A living wage for all employes. 

2. A wording day not to exceed eight 
hours, with one day of rest in seven. 

3. The adoption of safety appliances 
and the establishment of thoroughly sani- 
tary conditions of labor. 

4. Adequate compensation for indus- 
trial accidents. 

5. The standards of the 'uniform child 
labor law\ wherever minors are employed. 

6. Such provisions for decency, com- 
fort and health in the employment of wo- 
men as should be accorded the mothers of 
the race. 

7. An equitable retirement law, pro- 
viding for the retirement of superannuated 
and disabled employes of the civil service, 
to the end that a higher standard of effi- 
ciency may be maintained. 



80 



The Public Servant 



u 



une 



"We believe also that the adoption of 
similar principles should be urged and 
applied in the legislation of the states with 
regard to labor within their borders, that 
through every possible agency the life and 
health of the people of the nation should 
be conserved." 

President Wilson missed a very great 
opportunity in not continuing the work of 
President Taft's Commission on Economy 
and Efficiency, even if the Commission 
was not continued by Congress. If he 
will now take this plank of the St. Louis 
platform and push it with the energy he 
did the Federal Reserve Bank Act, with 
a like result, he will have achieved some- 
thing in which his administration has been 
heretofore notably weak — namely, an in- 
terest in administration. If he will add to 
it the development of machinery for train- 



ing men in the public service, plus a na- 
tional university for training men for the 
public service by using the educational 
opportunities of the public service, his in- 
ternal policy will achieve distinction. 



A Hughes Plank 

In his telegram accepting the nomination 
for President, Charles Evans Hughes said 
among other things: "/ stand for the 
principles of our civil service laws. In 
ever}? department of government the high- 
est efficiency must be insisted upon. For 
all laws and programs are vain without 
efficient and impartial administration." 

In the light of the man's personal char- 
acter, and his record in the public service, 
this statement, though general, is fraught 
with tremendous probabilities for the good 
of the public service, if he is elected. 



Quotations 



The Oregon School for Commonwealth 
Service 

A school which is to be started at the 
University of Oregon indicates that the 
far West has not lost its former ability to 
act on new ideas. One of the depart- 
ments in that institution is proposing to or- 
ganize a school which shall specially pre- 
pare its students for the service of the state. 
The plan is the outcome of a series of con- 
ferences on the fundamental political and 
social problems of Oregon, which have 
been held during the past eight years by 
members of the department of economics 
and sociology. The object of these con- 
ferences has been to enable the University 
to participate in the organization and di- 
rection of the local progressive, social and 
political movement. But the instructors 
in the two departments have regarded this 
work as only the introduction to the larger 
plan of a "School for Commonwealth Serv- 
ice" — a school "wherein the social obli- 



gations laid upon the institution are defi- 
nitely and gladly accepted and wherein 
students are to be furnished with facts and 
technical training which will enable them 
to leave the university informed as to their 
social duty and equipped to perform it." 
The originators of this program propose to 
organize a training school for public serv- 
ants, which will afford opportunities for 
the study of administrative problems and 
methods in the public offices ; and they will 
work also towards the socializing of the 
various special disciplines through which 
the student must pass in order to enter the 
several professions. The second of these 
experiments looks somewhat nebulous and 
dubious; but there can be no doubt about 
the need and the value of the first. 

(The second experiment seems to us to 
be neither nebulous nor dubious, but sorely 
needed in the contemporary social situa- 
tion, and abundant material has appeared 
in the New Republic emphasizing this 



J9I6] 



Quotations 



81 



need, particularly with reference to law. — 
E. A. F.) 

A Useful National University 

In order to do their job properly how- 
ever, state training schools in public ad- 
ministration should be supplemented by a 
national school, situated in Washington. 
The national school should be in the high- 
est and best sense of the word a political 
university — one in which graduate students 
in political science from all the state schools 
could pursue advanced courses and which 
would send its pupils into the public de- 
partments to obtain experience and make 
studies in the practical work of admin- 
istration. The partial model for such a 
university can already be observed in the 
French "Ecole Libre des Sciences Poli- 
tiques," which was started in Paris after 
the disaster of the Franco-Prussian war as 
one means of giving vitality to French 
popular political institutions. It is a singu- 
lar commentary on the limitations of Amer- 
ican educational ideas that in spite of the 
enormous sums dedicated by Americans to 
education, such a school has not as yet 
been founded in this country. The lack 
of it is all the more singular because in 
the minds of most American educational 
benefactors our democratic political insti- 
tutions were the sufficient excuse for making 
such a generous provision for education. 
A national school of public administration 
will be started as soon as Americans seri- 
ously begin to prepare for the fulfillment 
of their own national ideals. — The New 
Republic. 

Society to Promote Public Training In- 
troduced Here 

Twenty Men Gather at Noon Today and 
Discuss Civic Topic — Fassett Talks 
The Society for the Promotion of Train- 
ing for Public Service, a national civic or- 
ganization, with headquarters at Madi- 
son, Wis., was introduced to Spokane citi- 
zens at a noon meeting of 20 men at Dav- 



enports today. As a result it is expected 
a number of local members will be gained 
by the society and it is not unlikely that 
an organization will be formed here in the 
near future to study and advocate im- 
proved city, county and state government. 
City Commissioner C. M. Fassett, who 
called the meeting, gave an interesting sum- 
mary of his observations in a recent eastern 
trip, during which he gave close attention 
to new methods of solving city problems. 
He found much emphasis is being placed 
on the need of trained men in the public 
service — men who will select it as their 
life work and prepare themselves fully for 
its duties. 

Attract Young Men 

"One of the first steps needed to secure 
such men is to do away with the local 
citizenship rule and permit a city to call 
the best men available from any field," 
stated Commissioner Fassett. "The uni- 
versities will be ready to provide special 
training for public service when conditions 
are such as to attract young men to such a 
career. Abolishing the local residence 
rule, giving the man who makes good in 
the service of a small town an opportunity 
to seek promotion to a larger city would 
go far toward making public service at- 
tractive as a life work; and when it is 
made attractive the schools will quickly 
provide such courses of training as are 
required." — Spokane (Wash.) Daily 
Chronicle. 

New Training in State Department 

Three Volunteer Workers are to Gain Ex- 
perience this Summer 

The state departments of Wisconsin 
have at times been used as laboratories 
for students in which to gain directed 
training in administration. Students of the 
University of Wisconsin have done work 
in connection with the legislative reference 
library, with the bacteriological depart- 



82 



The Public Servant 



[June. 



ment, and with other departments for uni- 
versity credit. The library school in 
Madison sends numerous students to the 
various departmental libraries of the capi- 
tol for a few weeks of practical experience. 

A short time ago a successful high 
school teacher, wishing to secure training 
in educational administration, requested 
the state department of public instruction 
that she be allowed to work with its office 
this summer, and that she be given statisti- 
cal studies, supervising problems, and other 
assignments which would advance her 
training along this line. This privilege 
was granted her, and later two other teach- 
ers, one from Pasadena, California, and 
one from the La Crosse State Normal 
School, also registered for this training 
work. 

That there are numerous openings in 
this field for trained educational statisti- 
cians with teaching experience is only be- 
ginning to be recognized. That practical 
experience in the state department affords 
the best possible means of gaining this 
training is a fact that cannot be denied. 
The state department does not wish this 
year to take any more than the three volun- 
teer workers mentioned in this article. It 
would, however, be glad to hear of educa- 
tional administrators wishing to secure as- 
sistants trained in this way, and to hear 
outside opinion of the plan of procedure 
above described. — Wisconsin Educational 
News Bulletin. 



The Private Employer and Civil 
Service 

Civil service eligible lists consulted by 
private firm. Recently a letter by a 
"City Employe" to the editor of one of 
our daily papers called attention to the fact 
that a private business firm in Philadel- 
phia, in its endeavor to find a suitable man 
for a position in its office, had made use 
of the employment lists of the Civil Service 
Commission. This letter called forth an 
editorial on the following day which em- 
phasized the possibilities of making double 
use of the civil service eligible lists by plac- 



ing them at the disposal of private em- 
ployers. 

Civil service lists easily accessible. 
These lists may be consulted on the public 
bulletin boards at the south entrance to 
City Hall, or they may be obtained by 
writing for them to the Civil Service Com- 
mission, which has expressed its willing- 
ness to mail copies of such lists to any one 
upon request. 

The benefits to accrue from the use of 
public lists for private employment, (a) 
It has already been pointed out by the 
"City Employe" and the editorial men- 
tioned above that this practice would aid 
the private employer by bringing him in 
touch with men whose competence has been 
tested, and the prospective employe by in- 
creasing his chances of getting a job. (b) 
Eligible lists will be made more attractive 
by making them channels, not only to po- 
sitions in the city's service, but incidentally 
to private employment as well. A larger 
number of high-grade men may be ex- 
pected to present themselves for examina- 
tion and become available for employment 
in city departments. (c) Civil service 
methods of selection themselves will be put 
to the "merit" test. If persons taken from 
civil service lists by private employers prove 
incompetent, then we will know that the 
methods of selection employed are at fault, 
and the sooner we know this the better. 
If, on the other hand, these persons are 
found well qualified for the work for 
which they were selected, then the effec- 
tiveness and the value of civil service meth- 
ods will become known more widely and 
will be brought home to the public more 
forcibly. 

The realization of these benefits in the 
hands of private employers. Whether this 
practice of using public eligible lists for 
private employment will grow depends en- 
tirely upon private employers themselves. 
The lists' are easily accessible, and the 
Civil Service Commission is ready to co- 
operate in the cause. It remains for pri- 
vate employers to do their part. — Phila- 
delphia Bureau of Municipal Research. 



The Invitation 



University of Pennsylvania 
Philadelphia 

Office of the Provost 

June 22nd, 1916. 
My dear Mr. Fitzparick: 

I have your letter of June seventh, and 
wish to assure you that it will be a great 
pleasure to have the Society for the Pro- 
motion of Training for Public Service 
hold its next meeting at the University of 
Pennsylvania. I have the honor, there- 
fore, to extend to you in the name of the 
University of Pennsylvania a cordial invi- 
tation to hold your session at Philadelphia 
and will be most happy to place at the 
disposal of the Society such accommoda- 
tions as the University possesses for the 
holding of meetings. Permit me also to 
assure you that you can count on the most 
cordial cooperation of the University and 
I will have much pleasure in appointing a 
special committee to cooperate with your 
Society in promoting the success of this 
important conference. 

Yours sincerely, 

Edgar S. Smith. 



*The questions relating to the adminis- 
tration and supervision and the forms of 
Held work will be discussed at the meet- 
ing- of the Association of Urban Universi- 
ties during the week following the .confer- 
ence on Universities and Public Service. 
Our subject is intended to provoke discus- 
sion of the educational foundations of 
field work. 



Tentative Outline of Subjects Sub- 
mitted for Criticism 

Is Specific Training for Public Service 
a University Function? 



Is Field Work the Proper Method of 
Training for Public Service?* 



In What Ways May or Should Pro- 
fessional Training be Modified to Pre- 
pare Men Better for Public Service and 
to Reinforce or Develop Efficient Public 
Administration? 

(1) Community Needs and Educational 
Training. 

(2) Social Justice and Legal Education. 

(3) Public Health and Medical Educa- 
tion. 

(4) Public Works and Engineering Edu- 
cation. 



What Form of University Organiza- 
tion is Best Adapted to Develop and to 
Administer Training for Public Service? 



Why do Men Leave the Public Serv- 
ice? What is the Remedy? 



Training Men in the Public Service 

From the Viewpoint of the Administra- 
tion. 

From the Viewpoint of University Co- 
operation. 



What ;are the Opportunities before the 
High Schools of the Country in Training 
men for Public Service and for Efficient 
Citizenship? 



Women and the Administration of Pub- 
lic Business: An Opportunity for the 
Federation of Women's Clubs 



lVll 



Wanted: A New National Ci 
Service Law 

Some Needs in Present Civil Service 
Administration 

The Essentials of a Civil Service Law 



Will You Enlist 

in the movement to make govern- 
ment prepared for ALL situations? 

Unpreparedness for war has re- 
vealed to us our amazing unpre- 
paredness for peace. 

Why not definitely help the move- 
ment for a trained personnel in gov- 
ernment so that government can 
meet its day-to-day necessities as 
well as the extraordinary situations 
of war? 

Why not now fill out the blank below 
and send it along? 

The Public Servant 



Society for the Promotion of Training for Public Service 
Box 380, Madison, Wisconsin 

Enclosed please find $ for which enroll me as a 

member of the S. P. T. P. S. for the year ending December, 1916. Please send me 
The Public Servant regularly. 

Name 

Address 

Associate membership $3.00 a year. 
Active membership 5.00 

Contributing " 10.00 

Donors " 100.00 " 

Founders 1 000.00 or more. 



XTbe public Servant 

' ' There can be no higher ambition than that of serving the state, nothing more creditable than to serve it well. ' ' 



Number 6 
Sept., 1916 



Issued Monthly except July and August, by the 

Society lor the Promotion ot Training for Public Service 

Madison, Wisconsin 



This Issue 
25 cents 



p|[llllllllllllllll!lllllllllllll!llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!llllllilllllll!IW^ 

I aTo 3 ulia C. iatfjrop | 

I . public servant, an associate at Hull House, formerly member of the Illi- 

nois State Board of Charities and now chief of the Children's Bureau of 
the United States Department of Labor, scientific investigator of child 
welfare, able administrator gifted with a social vision, this number of 

| ®be public ^erbant 

is dedicated because of her efficient administration of the Children s Bu- 
reau and because she is developing in a large and human way and with 
keen social insight the commission of the Children s Bureau "to investi- 
gate and report upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and 
child life among all classes of our people" 

fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 



Means and Ends 

I have no interest in the political party except as 
an instrument of achievement. I cannot imagine 
how a man can be interested in a party that hasn't as- 
pirations and a program to be worked out. — Presi- 
dent Wilson. 



86 



The Public Servant 



[September 



Zbe public Servant 

EDWARD A. FITZPATRICK, Editor 



Issued Monthly by the 




Madison, Wis. 



Board of Trustees 
Charles McCarthy .... Madison, Wis. 

F. G. Young- Eugene Oregon 

Winston Churchill .... Cornish, N. H. 
Clarence G. McDavitt . . . Boston, Mass. 

Will C. Hogg Houston, Texas 

Zona Gale Portage, Wis. 

Neil Gray, Jr. .... . Oswego, N. Y. 

John S. Murdock . . . Providence, R. I. 

Parke R. Kolbe Akron, Ohio 

Charles M. Fassett . . . Spokane, Wash. 
Louis B. Wehle Louisville, Ky. 

Director 
Edward A. Fitzpatrick . . Madison, Wis. 



Congratulations! National Civil Service 
Reform League 

There is no valid public reason that 
has been presented why the National Civil 
Service Reform League should not have 
access to the public records of the United 
States Civil Service Commission. A civil 
service commission ought to be so glad 
that citizens are interested in securing facts 
about appointments and dismissals from 
official records that it would gladly place 
such records at the disposal of such citi- 
zens and cooperate in getting for them the 
fullest possible data. The public interest 
is not conserved by the procedure of the 
Commission but disregarded. The cause 
of civil service is injured, and the civil ser- 
vice reform movement is made more diffi- 
cult. 

One of the reasons for the refusal is: 
"An investigation by an outside body may 
be ex parte, partisan, mischievous, imper- 
fect, and calculated grossly to mislead 
the public, and attack and embarrass an 
administration, as experience 'has shown." 

If the Civil Service Commission bases 
its refusal to permit access to its records 
on one "may be," why may it not permit 
such access to its records on another 
"may be," to wit: An investigation by 
an outside body may be complete, non- 
partisan, beneficial, perfect and calculated 



to inform fully the public so that it may 
understand the facts, and the administra- 
tion may be judged fairly on its record? 

Why not this presumption rather than 
the other? 

We agree unqualifiedly with the lan- 
guage quoted by the National Civil Ser- 
vice Reform League: "Nothing so fosters 
the spoils system as secrecy in the ad- 
ministration of patronage" and, let us 
add, of civil service. 

No greater 'service can be performed 
for the cause of efficient public adminis- 
tration in the national government than 
a thoroughgoing inquiry, of the adminis- 
tration of the national civil service law. 
We are prepared, after the election, to 
urge such an inquiry with vigor. 



The Edward M. Bok Lectures 

Edward M. Bok of Philadelphia has 
provided for the Edward Bok Lectures 
at Williams College. President Garfield, 
in his annual report, says: 

"The Bok Lectures, though open to 
the public, are intended primarily to set 
before undergraduates the ethical ideals of 
various vocations and the opportunities in 
each. The lectures on specific vocations 
are followed, after an interval of a week 
or two, by a round-table conference. At- 
tendance at these conferences is limited 
but includes all who are considering the 
vocation under discussion. In some re- 
spects these are more important than the 
lectures, certainly they are more fruitful 
for the individual student." 

These follow-up conferences are an 
adjunct to a lecture that ought to be 
utilized in all foundations and endowments 
and in all college instruction. We trust 
that another year the Bok Lectures will 
include a lecture on opportunities in the 
public service. We trust that Mr. Bok 
or some equally generous person will 
provide in other universities for similar se- 
ries of lectures supplemented by confer- 
ences on the various phases of public 
service. All universities ought to have 
them. For any university which serious- 
ly undertakes vocational guidance, such 
lectures and conferences are of funda- 
mental importance. 



1916] Training for the Military Sea-vice 87 



Training for the Military Service 

Edward A. Fitzpatrick, 
Director, Society for the Promotion of Training for Public Service 

The Panama Canal is a great tribute to the educational system of the 
army. It is a great tribute to the capacity of the national government to 
organize training for its own service. The army is not merely a great ma- 
chine of destruction. It is a great constructive force, notably in our nation- 
al public works.* It is certainly a great educational organization. 

In the army, in the navy and in the Public Health Service the nation 
has clearly shown the great fundamental need for training for public service 
and its own capacity to organize and develop it. Even admitting the 
esprit d' corps of the army and the influence of a number of permanent of- 
ficials, it must strike the thinking mind with something like a shock to note 
practically no organized preparation and training for the civil service in con- 
trast to the elaborate organization for the military service. However, we 
must accept that fact. Let us see now what the principles underlying the 
army system are which contribute to its success. The question may then be 
raised by the reader as to the applicability of these principles to training for 
the civil service. 

The Educational System of the Army. 

"There has been built up in the army," says General Wotherspoon, "an 
educational system directed to that end that exceeds in completeness any 
other educational system in the country. Professional training in the army, 
unlike in some professions, does not cease when an officer has won his com- 
mission; it goes on through all his career." And this statement is warrant- 
ed by the facts, as will be shown in the sequel. This system may by way 
of introduction be outlined in skeleton form : 

1 . The Military Academy at West Point for the education of cadets. 

(4 years). 

2. Post schools for the instruction of enlisted men. (Various periods). 

3. Garrison schools for the instruction of officers in subjects pertaining 

to the performance of their ordinary duties. ( 1 year, preliminary, 
and 3 years in garrison school). 

4. The Army Service Schools at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas : 

(a) The Army School of the Line (basic school — 1 year) 

(b) The Army Staff College (1 year). 

(c) The Army Signal School ( 1 year) 

(d) The Army Field Engineer School (1 year). 



*But not entirely so, let us add in this footnote. That the army engineers are, in 
connection with rivers and harbors improvement, subjected to tremendous political pres- 
sure and that they have succumbed frequently to this pressure any student of "pork" 
knows. A national waterway commission would help the situation greatly. So much 
for an aside. 



88 The Public Servant [September 

(e) The Army Field Service and Correspondence School for Medical 
Officers (1 year & six weeks). 

5. The Special Service Schools: 

(a) The Engineer School, Washington Barracks, D. C. (18 months). 

(b) The Coast Artillery School, Fort Monroe, Va. (Officers 2 years, 

enlisted men 3 years). 

(c) The Mounted Service School, Fort Riley, Kansas. 

a. School for Field Officers (Apr. 1-June 15). 

b. School for Company Officers (Sept. 25-June 30). 

c. School for Farriers and Horseshoers (2 courses, four months 

each, Feb. 1 5— June 15, and July 1 5— Nov. 15). 

d. School for Bakers and Cooks (4 months). 

(d) The Army Medical School, Washington, D. C. (1 year). 

(e) The School of Fire for Field Artillery, Fort Sill, Okla. 

(f) The School of Musketry, Fort Sill, Okla. 

(g) The Signal Corps Aviation School, San Diego, Cal. 

(h) The Schools for Bakers and Cooks, Washington Barracks, D. O, and 

Presidio of San Francisco (4 months), 
(i) The Training School for Saddlers and for Battery Mechanics of Field 

Artillery, Rock Island Arsenal, 111. (11 months.) 
(j) The School of Instruction for Enlisted Men of the Regular Army 

selected for detail for duty with the Organized Militia (7 weeks 

beginning July 1 ) . 

6. The Army War College, Washington, D. C. (Permanent; tem- 

porary, 1 yr.) 

7. The Schools of Instruction for College Students (5 weeks — summer). 

8. The military departments of civil institutions at which officers of the 

Army are detailed under the provisions of law. 

Practical Training and Theoretical Instruction 

Fundamental in this educational system, whether it be in the preparato:y 
training at West Point or in the continuous training in the service of officers, 
or whether it be of enlisted men in the post schools, or in the specialized 
schools for cooks, electricians, farriers or other supplementary seivices need- 
ed by the army, practical training runs along with theoretical instruction. At 
West Point, for example, in the Department of Military Hygiene this co- 
ordination of theory and practice may be illustrated in the practice that on 
marches at the end of each day, the medical officer discusses practical mat- 
ters from the point of view of the military sanitarian. In the department of 
practical military engineering, "during the spring period this class (the sec- 
ond) is instructed in the field methods of electrical communication and is 
given practice in establishing and using buzzer lines under, as nearly as 
possible, service conditions. This course also comprises setting up and op- 
erating field wireless telegraph outfits." This actual work is supplemented 
by trips of inspection. During the first year of the courses in ordnance and 
gunnery, "visits are made to Watervliet Arsenal, where the processes of 
gun construction are observed, and to the Ordnance Proving Ground at 
Sandy Hook, where actual firings from the several classes of guns are ob- 
served, including usually one or more shots against armor, and where the 
latest developments in war material are seen." 



1916] Training for the Military Service 89 

This same class in the department of Civil and Military Engineering is 
taken to the field of Gettysburg to familiarize it with the effects of topogra- 
phy on the employment of troops in the field. Even vacations are utilized 
for practical training. "Academic duties are suspended from the comple- 
tion of the June examinations until the end of August. During this period 
cadets live in camp and are engaged in military duties and exercises and m 
receiving practical instruction in military and other subjects." All profes- 
sional education might well profit by a careful study of this organized coor- 
dination of theory and practice. 

A corollary of the foregoing is the fact that the rvhole life of the student 
is an organized professional training. The academy accepts at its face value 
the wisdom of the proverb that "Life is the best teacher." There is no dis- 
tinction between learning and living. We learn through living. The army 
is the best illustration in any phase of the American educational system, not 
excluding the kindergarten, of the organization of this principle into an ef- 
fective educational instrument. 

Continuous Training of Men in Service 

There is no place in the army where the educational process ends. After 
four years of combined theoretical and practical instruction at West Point, 
the young officer has immediately ahead of him at least six years of post- 
graduate work. During the first years of commissioned service the officers 
of all branches except the Corps of Engineers are required to pursue a pre- 
liminary course of instruction before entering the garrison schools. "All offi- 
cers of the line of the Army below the grade of colonel, but actually engag- 
ed as instructors or student officers in the garrison school course, will partici- 
pate in the post-graduate work." Officers of the Organized Militia are per- 
mitted to attend garrison schools on certain conditions. 

Three years are spent in the garrison schools. Then follow two years 
in the army service schools, one in the basic school, the Army School of the 
Line, and the other in one of the affiliated schools, the Army Staff College, 
the Army Signal School, the Army Field Engineering School, or the Army 
Field Service and Correspondence School for Medical Officers Certain 
officers not below the grade of captain are detailed to the Army War Col- 
lege for a year. 

For all kinds of work, too, the army has special service schools. It has 
schools for the coast artillery service, the mounted service, medical service, 
the field artillery service. It ha^ a school of musketry and the signal corps 
aviation school. It has schools for bakers and cooks, saddlers and mechan- 
ics. 

Developing; the "Reserve of Ability" 

Captain McArthur of the General Staff says, "No country in the world 
has as complete a system of professional scholastic training for its (army) 
officers as the United States." Then follows a rather striking statement of 
the reason for it. This reason has great significance in training for the mili- 
tary service. 



90 The Public Servant [September 

"European armies do not have this training because the army is practi- 
cally always on war footing and each officer is located in his niche. He must 
be able to render his service in the place in which he is then located. The 
declaration of war will not affect his position or his promotion except as the 
result of fatalities. The training, therefore, he needs is the narrow defini- 
tized training as colonel, as lieutenant, as captain, whatever his rank is. The 
army is a vast machine in which it is important that each part shall serve its 
specific purpose and be coordinated with the rest. The education, therefore, 
is very elementary and very mechanical. A perfect machine will best serve 
the purposes of the highly trained staff." 

The regular army of the United States is small, i. e., it is not on a war 
footing. The regular army must be the organizing and disciplining agency 
in making the volunteers in war-time into an army. The specific duties that 
may be assigned to a particular officer are defined only by the whole extent 
of services to be performed. A mechanically perfect lieutenant is useless. 
We cannot afford to train merely lieutenants, colonels, and captains. We 
must train a man-in-arms capable of serving wherever the need is greatest. 
Or as Captain McArthur puts it: "But the system must be such as to edu- 
cate our officers so that they will be able at a moment's notice, when the war 
expansion comes, to perform the duties of far-advanced grades and to ren- 
der service in branches of the Army, both line and staff, in which they are 
not commissioned in time of peace. For this reason we have established a 
progressive system of schools designed to teach officers and men, limited only 
by their individual capacities for its assimiliation, the duty of the man-in- 
arms in all grades from lowest to highest." 

When the universities earnestly set to work to train men for public service- 
so far as aim is concerned, this point is of tremendously vital significance. 

Training in Administration Combined With Training in Technique 

Worthy of special note in connection with the last point is this fact, that 
besides the technical training given, there runs along with it specific training 
in organization and administration. As to method this is probably the best 
way to secure a mobile body of officers. In the Army School of the Line, 
for example, the first thing noted under "Military Art" is: 

(a) Troops in campaign — Organization, field orders, marches, camps, 
supply, and the care of troops in the field. Instruction in sanitation, and the 
care of troops to be given by the Army Field Service and Correspondence 
School for Medical Officers. Instruction by conferences, lectures, and prac- 
tical oroblems. 

The Army Staff College aims to train selected graduates of the School 
of the Line for the more important staff duties with large commands in time 
of war. In the Staff College under "Military Art" three things may be 
noted : 

/ (a) Staff duties — To include duties of the General Staff, supply and 
administration. Instruction by lectures and conferences and practical prob- 
lems. 



1916] Training for the Military Service 91 

(b) Practical demonstration of the uses of all means afforded by the 
Signal Corps for gaining information and furnishing lines of information in 
the theater of operations, including balloons, wireless and ordinary tele- 
graph, telephones, etc., in conjunction with field exercise. 

(e) Care of troops — Instruction in the care of troops is given by the 
Army Field Service and Correspondence School for Medical Officers. 

The purpose of the School of Musketry is to teach officers of the mobile 
Army how to handle the fire of their commands so as to obtain the maximum 
effect. The methods of instituting a satisfactory system of fire discipline and 
control are taught as well as the development of firing tactics for the infantry 
arm of the service. Original research work and practical application of tac- 
tical principles and their coordination are also included. 

Developing Research and the Spirit of Experimentation 

With the problem-method of teaching and the field training which char- 
acterizes the work throughout, the spirit of inquiry, of curiosity, of research, 
must be continuously stimulated. Definite provision is made for original re- 
search in the School of Musketry. 

Part of the object of the Signal Corps Aviation School is "to develop by 
experimental research practical aeronautics as applied to military problems." 
The War College is, in part, a kind of research organization for the whole 
military organization, promoting the advanced study of military subjects. 

Graduating into the Service 

Other points could be made, such as the care in the selecting of men for 
training at West Point, the valuable by-products for civil life secured by 
training in the army schools. We do want to make one other point. After 
the training at West Point, a position is practically assured. By act of Con- 
gress it is provided "That when any cadet of the United States Military 
Academy has gone through all its classes and received a regular diploma 
from the academic staff, he may be promoted and commissioned as a second 
lieutenant in any arm or corps of the Army in which there may be a vacan- 
cy and the duties of which he may have been judged competent to perform, 
and in case there shall not at any time be a vacancy in such arm or corps, he 
may, at the discretion of the President, be promoted and commissioned in it 
as an additional second lieutenant, with the usual pay and allowances of a 
second lieutenant, until a vacancy shall happen." 

Some Questions For You 

Shall we provide similar training for the civil service as for the military 

service? 
Shall we have a civil West Point? a civil Annapolis? 
Shall we provide for continuous training of the men in the civil service? 
Shall we in training men for the public service 

1. Combine practical training with theoretical instruction 



92 



The Public Servant 



[September 



2. Combine training. in administration with training in technique 

3. Develop the "reserve of ability" 

4. Develop research and the spirit of experimentation 

Shall we offer reasonable opportunity at reasonable pay to trained men in 

the civil service? 
Shall we be intelligent about recruiting and developing men in the public 

service? 
Shall we? 



A Communication 

Dear Mr. Fitzpatrick: 

I regret that one of two things must 
be true — either I am a little stale on 
what women are doing in the public ser- 
vice or they haven't been doing anything 
very conspicuous lately — for I find it 
rather hard to think of any women whose 
services are analogous to those of the men 
to whom the PUBLIC SERVANT has 
been dedicated and give the exact reasons 
for singling them out. I will give you the 
following names, though I realize that 
some are, because of their being so well 
known, not the sort which you are seeking. 

The four most obvious instances of 
women in the public service are Dr. Jose- 
phine S. Bal?er, Dr. Katherine B. Davis, 
Miss Julia C. Lathrop and Jane Addams. 
Personally, I think Dr. Baker a very 
strong candidate, particularly as her ac- 
complishments are tangible and excite the 
imagination. Of the less conspicuous 
people, the following are possibilities: 
Ellis Clement Meredith and Luc]) I. Har- 
rington, both of Denver. As you proba- 
bly know, the former was, and possibly 
is yet, a commissioner of elections, and 
the latter county recorder. I have heard 
many times of Mildred Chadsey, who was 
the chief sanitarian in Cleveland, Ohio. 
Then there are Mrs. Jessie D. Hodder 
of Sherborn, Mass., who is at the head 
of the Massachusetts State Reformatory 
for women ; Emily Balch, who has been 
active lately in city planning in Boston ; 
Mrs. D. C. McCan, who was vice-pres- 
ident of the Civil Service Commission and 
a member of the Efficiency Commission in 



Los Angeles, California; Miss Clegghorn 
of New York, who has done work in so- 
cial statistics — now, I think, with the Rus- 
sell Sage; and Dr. Mary Pennington, 
food chemist and expert on refrigeration 
for the federal government. I regret that 
we have nothing very exciting to offer from 
this locality. Caroline Bartlett Crane has 
certain possibilities, though I do not recall 
that she ever held an official position. 
There must be thousands of nurses, li- 
brarians, teachers and social workers who 
have performed valuable services, but 
somehow I can not recall any individuals 
(except Ella Flagg Young) who qualify 
under the term "distinctive." 

In case you select any of the above 
women, it would be advisable to get a lo- 
cal estimate of their services. If none of 
these will do, I would be very glad to 
make a second search for you, just from 
a desire to promote the "cause." 
Very truly yours, 

Some Other Names 

Other names suggested are: 

Mrs. Josephine Preston, State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction of 
Washington, for her effective handling of 
the educational forces of that great state. 

Miss Susie Powell of the Mississip- 
pi State Department of Education for her 
unusual work in the rural schools. 

Miss Cora Wilson Stewart, 
County Superintendent of Schools ami 
member of the Kentucky Illiteracy Com- 
mission, for her remarkable work through 
the instrumentality of the "moonlight 
schools." 



Texas Women in Municipal Servic 



93 



Texas Women in Municipal Service 

Annie E. WHITTAKER,* University of Texas. 

The status of women in municipal ser- commanding, and what pecuniary incentive 

vice is of double interest: first because of there is for women choosing a life work to 

the inevitable effect on wages in the kinds enter that branch of public service. 

of service where women compete with men ; Through the University Bureau of Mu- 

second because (at least in States where nicipal Research and Reference, question- 

women have no vote) women in the naires were sent to 106 cities and towns 

city's employ are not quite as apt to be in the State (those that the 1910 census 

affected by changes of administration as credited with a population of 2,000 or 

men are, and consequently there is, or more) . Replies were received from 64. 

ought to be, a better chance to build up The 64 included all of Texas' nine largest 

traditions of expert sei~vice. To what ex- cities except Galveston. It is noteworthy 

tent this last statement is true is an open that Galveston s famous commission-gov- 

question, to be sure. In many of the ernment charter was so worded that it 

Texas state departments, for instance, was impossible for the city to have a 

where the spoils system prevails, there woman in its employ, and the inhibition 

is a "clean sweep" every two years, or was not removed until the summer of 

every four years, which affects men and 19/5, when a charter amendment was 

women alike. But in many cases the adopted remedying the situation. 

women are affected because the new ap- It is also noteworthy that of the 64 

pointees are relatives of members of the municipalities reporting, 44 had no women 

legislature, or of new department heads employes. These were mostly the smaller 

(many of whom are elected), or of places, ranging in population from 3.000 

members of various administrative boards to 1 0,000. 

and commissions. The influence of "kin- j„ ^ rema ining 20 cities, 144 women 

ship" does not seem to play such a part employes were reported, as follows: 

in the cities. Most of the recent city 

, ... . . Average 

charters contain anti-nepotism provisions; Salary 

and while in some cases it is evident that 6 City Secretaries (City Clerks), 

such provisions have slipped in accident- K (including assistants) $936 

■ ' . .. r i l L ° Assessors and Collectors or 

ally, without malice aforethought on the Taxes (including deputies)... 925 

part of the framers of the charters (proba- 3 Secretaries of United Charities 1,260. 

l l J ■ fU^v ^U-^vforA 2 Police Matrons (one is also in- 

bly due to copying some other charter) gpe&tor of ^.^ pictures) _ 805 

still in many the provision seems to be ef- i Food Inspector 300 

fective. It is our experience that adminis- 1 Complaint Clerk 840 

, . . , T , 1 Eest Boom Matron 300 

tration is on a higher plane in 1 exas 3 Telephone Operators (these girls 

municipalities than in her state depart- have charge of private branch 

meats, and that the pos.tions in municipal M st £^j^. 9 * «* ^] $ 

service are as a rule more secure. 32 Hospital Employes 385 

Both considerations mentioned aided in (Subdivided as 

i • .• L- L i.L follows I : 

prompting the investigation which the 3 Head Xursos avtM , 

writer made; but the principal considera- age salary $1,000 

tion was the desire to know what salaries oo 29 Assistants, av. sal. 

... ,, 38 Librarians 'So 

women in municipal work are actually (Subdivided as 

, a follows): 

* This is a suggestive little paper 'and we are glad fi H , Librarians 

to print it. Its value would however have been » - tlea(l ^mianans, 

greatly enhanced if the lowest and highest salaries average salary. . $±,5dU 

were given instead of the averages. We hope Miss og Assistants, 

Whittaker will continue her studies of this subject „..„.,„„.„ ealarv 643 

and contribute further to the Public Servant. average saiarj . . 



94 The Publi 

38 Clerical Employes 748 

(Distributed as 
follows) : 
Secretarial positions, 5, 

average salary $985 

United Charities, 8, 

average salary 670 

Water works, etc., 8, 

average salary 790 

(Usually as cashiers 
or bookkeepers) 
Sanitary departs., 4, 

average salary 600 

Other (unclassifi- 

able), 13 

average salary 563 

Judged on the basis of average salaries, 
the most profitable callings for which a 
woman can fit herself, if she wants to 
enter municipal service in Texas, are, in 
order : head librarian of the public library ; 
secretary in charge of the city's charita- 
ble work; and head nurse in the city hos- 
pital. There are but few of these po- 
sitions in the State, however. They do 
not exist in many of the smaller munici- 
palities, and they certainly are not well 
paid in any but the larger cities. And the 
above table shows that the "underlings" 
in these three professions receive very low^ 
average salaries. Apparently moie is to 
be hoped for in the more "staple'' lines 
of stenographer and book-keeper, where 
the prospects are surer, if not S3 dazzling. 
The positions are better distributed 
throughout municipalities of various size. 
The number employed is larger, and the 
average salary for the "rank and file" is 
well up in the scale; while the most suc- 
cessful attain salaries that are very com- 
fortable, as women's salaries go. 

The same contention is borne out by 
turning from averages to the best actual 
salaries reported. The 20 cities reported 
nine women as receiving $ 1 ,400 or more 
a year. The positions embraced are, in 
order: 

Librarian $2 , 100 

Assistant City Secretary 1,800 

Assessor and Collector of Taxes... 1,800 

Librarian 1 , 800 

Stenographer to Mayor 1,500 

Librarian 1,500 

Librarian 1 , 500 

Librarian 1,440 

Secretary United Charities 1,400 

Five of the nine are librarians, to be 



Servant 



[September 



sure but three are women with commer- 
cial training — "business women," so to 
speak. One is an administrator of 
charity. 

The disappointment of the whole list is 
the food inspector. The work is of a sort 
for which it would seem that women are 
particularly adapted, and one wonders 
why more of the sex are not serving 
American cities in that capacity. Yet 
these 64 cities and towns of Texas re- 
port but one woman food inspector, and 
she is paid only $300. On the other 
hand, very probably she gives only part 
of her time to the work. 

To supplement the information thus 
collected, the State Department of Edu- 
cation was appealed to for the average 
salaries of women teachers in the city 
schools. The Department had no data 
available for any period later than the 
school year 1913-1914, but for that 
period calculated that the average salary 
of the 5,867 women teachers (white) in 
the "independent districts," or districts 
embracing the incorporated cities and 
towns, of the State, was $567.64. 743 
female teachers, colored, were reported by 
the Department as teaching in the negro 
schools of the towns and cities during the 
same period, their average salary being 
$361.52. The teachers' salaries are, 
however, presumably on the basis of a 
nine-month year. 

All the information I have presented is 
more interesting than scientifically accu- 
rate ; for to serve any scientific purpose, or 
to play any part in comparative data from 
several States, it ought to be supplemented 
and revised to take into account the pro- 
portion of time given to her work by 
each employe, the length of vacation, etc. ; 
and to some extent the relative character 
and difficulty of the work performed. 
But as it stands it will form a satisfactory 
starting point for any more detailed in- 
vestigation of the same field that may be 
thought desirable, and in the meanwhile 
it gives a fair index to the opportunities 
now actually awaiting women in Texas, 
who desire to enter professionally the 
service of the municipal governments. 



progress in the ^Universities 

**8ut forward look the land is bright" 



EDUCATION FOR PUBLIC 

SERVICE BEING PLANNED 



Organization of Educational Agencies 

of State Just Effected for That 

Purpose. 



COLLEGE HEADS ACTIVE 



Chairman Campbell, of Civil Service 
Commission, Sees Great Possi- 
bilities in Plan. 



A permanent organization of the edu- 
cational agencies of the state has been 
effected, and the primary plans of Dr. Z. 
B. Campbell, chairman of the state civil 
service commission, have been completed. 
The advisory board on education for 
public service met during the week with 
the following members present: Chas. 
W. Dabney, president of the University 
of Cincinnati; Parke R. Kolbe, president 
of the Municipal university, Akron; A. 
R. Hatton, representing the Western Re- 
serve university, Cleveland; President W. 
O. Thompson of Ohio State university; 
President R. M. Hughes of Miami uni- 
versity, and F. B. Pearson, supervisor of 
public instruction. A permanent organiza- 
tion was effected by the election of Dr. 
Dabney as president and K. McKinley 
secretary. 

The purpose of this organization is to 
train students in the public schools and 
colleges for the public service; to make 
more efficient those already in the ser- 
vice by night instruction, and to train 
students who attend such schools in a way 
that will give them a better understand- 
ing of the public service, thus fitting them 
for more intelligent citizenship, even 
though they do not become public ser- 
vants. 

The success of the experiment last year 
influenced the Mayor to appoint the Advis- 
ory Committee and lay plans to organ- 
(Continued on next page) 



TO ENLARGE STUDIES 

FOR CITY EMPLOYES 



Advisory Board Organizes to Direct 

Advanced Courses at City 

College. 



PUBLIC SERVICE A CAREER 



Mayor's Action Will Improve 3Iunici- 
pal Workers and Stimulate Indi- 
vidual Betterment. 



An Advisory Board, which will take 
part in the direction of courses at the Col- 
lege of the City of New York to train 
young men for the municipal service, was 
organized at a dinner at the University 
Club given last night by Gano Dunn of 
the J. G. White Engineering Company. 

The following men, who were appoint- 
ed yesterday by Mayor Mitchel to serve 
on the newly-created Advisory Board, at- 
tended the dinner: Alfred D. Flinn, 
Deputy Chief Engineer of the Board 
of Water Supply; Michael Friedsam, 
President of B. Altman & Co. ; Public 
Service Commissioner Henry W. Hodge; 
Curt G. Pfeiffer of George Boegfeldt & 
Co. ; Civil Service Commissioner Henry 
Moskowitz, President Charles Strauss of 
the Board of Water Supply, Commission- 
er of Accounts Leonard M. Wallstein, 
and Gano Dunn. Charles H. Tuttle 
of the Board of Trustees of the College 
of the City of New York and Freder- 
ick B. Robinson, Director of the College 
Evening Session and Municipal Courses, 
were also present. 

In the last four years the City College 
has granted special student privileges to 
persons in the city employ, with the view 
to improving the efficiency of the munici- 
pal service and aiding individuals to ad- 
vance. Last year the experiment was 
tried, in co-operation with New York 
University, of conducting special courses 
for those in the city service in the Munici- 
pal Building. 

l 



96 



The Public SeiDant 



[September 



Factors in Business 

Corporations have long seen the neces- 
sity of training their workers, and cam- 
paigns of education and schools for work- 
ers are now well recognized factors in the 
success of business enterprises. The state 
civil service commission has thus taken a 
very advanced step in placing the educa- 
tional machinery of the state at the dis- 
posal of those who desire to prepare for 
the public service. This movement is 
planned to supplement the work of stand- 
ardizing and reorganizing the public ser- 
vice which is already under way. The 
possibilities of such a movement for the 
betterment of public service can at once 
be realized. 

iPurpose Explained 

Dr. Campbell emphasized the fact that 
this movement is not for the purpose of 
getting college men into the state service, 
but to give every man on the outside the 
means of an equal training, so that the ser- 
vice will become a career to which a 
man may devote his full powers with am- 
ple assurance of advancement and proper 
reward. Dr. Campbell calls attention to 
the fact that as 27 per cent of the state 
income from taxation goes to education, 
there is no reason why this machinery 



cannot be applied to the betterment of 
the service. 

Dr. Dabney outlines the plan of the 
advisory board by saying that it will first 
make use of the survey made by the state 
civil service commission to ascertain the 
positions for which the various schools, 
colleges and universities may prepare per- 
sons or give assistance, and also to deter- 
mine what is already being done towards 
training persons ifor the public service 
and what can be done to aid this work. 

Higher Efficiency 

The most attractive part of the plan is 
that which provides for giving additional 
training to those already in the service. 
Persons desiring to increase their effi- 
ciency while holding present positions, and 
those wishing to prepare for promotions, 
will be provided with facilities for train- 
ing by the schools located in the vicinity 
of these employes' residences. Night 
classes will be established in central loca- 
tions so that all employes of the state ser- 
vice may secure instruction if they so de- 
sire, and correspondence instruction will be 
provided for those who are so located that 
they cannot attend classes. — Columbus 
Dispatch. 



(Continued from preceding page) 
ize a great continuation school which will 
aim to improve all those in the service who 
wish to avail themselves of the opportun- 
ity and to stimulate men to . study for 
advancement in the city employ. In a 
statement issued at the City Hall, de- 
scribing the courses planned, it was said: 
"The thousands of bookkeepers will 
receive not only instruction in bookkeep- 
ing methods to make them better workers 
in their present positions, but they will be 
admitted to advanced courses in account- 
ing, municipal accounts, statistics, audit- 
ing, and allied subjects, so that they may 
be prepared to advance to higher positions. 
Similarly, men in the lower engineering 
branches will be taught drafting and sur- 
veying and, besides, more higher mathe- 
matics and engineering, to prepare them 
for advancement. 



"The Mayor's Advisory Committee is 
made up of men who have had wide ex- 
perience either in public service or private 
engineering and commerce. 

"These men will render valuable serv- 
ice to the community in advising the city's 
college concerning the groups of courses 
which should be offered and also con- 
cerning methods of conducting the work. 
As this educational undertaking begins to 
bear fruit, public service will be regard- 
ed as a dignified career in which adequate 
preparation and experience will be recog- 
nized as necessary for entrance to, reten- 
tion, and advancement in all public of- 
fices except those which are elective or 
appointive. The citys' college may well 
develop this work for the public good, and 
it is fortunate in having the advice of the 
very able committee, appointed by the 
Mayor." — New York Times. 



916] 



Progress in the Universities 



97 



A Service Handbook 

"Appointments to Positions at Home 
and Abroad in the Bureau of Foreign 
and Domestic Commerce' is the title of an 
excellent little pamphlet just issued by the 
Bureau. It describes in detail the char- 
acter of the positions open in the Bureau, 
the necessary qualifications of candidates 
and the specific character of the examina- 
tions. Such little handbooks ought to be 
gotten out for all services. State services 
and municipal services might profitably do 
likewise. 



From the Far West 

Herman A. Brauer writes in the 
June number of The Washington Alum- 
nus an interesting summary of the prog- 
ress of the movement of training for pub- 
lic service and gives a pertinent analysis 
of the elements in the movement upon 
which there is general agreement. 
These elements are: "(1) Any training 
for the public service (except for purely 
mechanical and routine work) must be 
associated as closely as possible with the 
actual service itself, if the training is to 
be practically effective and directly use- 
ful. (2) Successful completion of the 
training should insure entrance into the 
service on a merit basis. * * * 
(3) The first aim of university training 
for public service should be the laying of 
a broad and firm foundation of general 
principles (inspired and vitalized of 
course by contact with practical work) , 
even though in some cases this may in- 
volve the postponement of practical details 
for later acquisition in the service itself." 
We are in absolute accord with Mr. Brau- 
er up to the word "even," and what fol- 
lows we would omit. 

He closes his article with this signifi- 
cant paragraph: "The University of 
Washington, under the leadership of its 
new president, who is a professionally 
trained educator, is fully alive to the need 
of higher vocational training along definite 
practical lines, including the various arts, 
crafts and professions required in the pub- 
lic service." 



We shall be glad to see the University 
of Washington, under the leadership of 
President Suzzalo, "go to it" with all 
the vigor that the far West is capable of. 
May we have opportunity soon to record 
some forward steps. 



Another Opportunity For Field Training 

The Ohio Institute for Public Efficien- 
cy announced recently a department of 
social service in charge of Fred C. Crox- 
ton, who has been intimately connected 
with public service in the United States 
Bureau of Labor, the United States Im- 
migration Commission and the Ohio State 
Industrial Commission. The aims of 
this new department are twofold: Pre- 
ventive, the ultimate elimination as far 
as possible of dependency and delin- 
quency ; and constructive, the establishment 
of progressively higher standards of living. 
Mr. Rufus E. Miles, the executive direc- 
tor of the Institute, announces that he 
hopes to develop a considerable amount 
of "university cooperation along investi- 
gational lines." The work of the Insti- 
tute affords abundant opportunity for field 
training in social economy under effective 
supervision. Professors of sociology in- 
terested in the work for themselves or 
their students should write Mr. R. E. 
Miles, Hartman Building, Columbus, 
Ohio. 



Women in the Public Service 

We should be glad to have more 
brief studies like Miss Whittaker's on the 
various phases of women in the public 
service. We should be glad to have a 
similar study for your state. We are 
asking Miss Neva R. Deardorff, formerly 
of the Philadelphia Department of Pub- 
lic Health and Charities, and now assist- 
ant director of the Philadelphia Bureau 
of Municipal Research to bring down to 
date her article on "Women in the Munici- 
pal Activities" published in the Annals 
of the American Academy of Political 
and Social Science in 1914. 



NO. 2 

This is one of a number of inclosures of a letter from a private civil 
service school printed in a most glaring- crimson : 



WAR 



WHAT EFFECT WILL THESE GREAT AVARS HAVE OX YOU? 

Think — Man — Think 

Every man should take five minutes' time, and think soberly as to 
just what effect these wars will have on him; on the chance of his 
earning a good living and on the prospect of his properly providing 
for his family, not only now but two years from now. 

The Effect 

Many are now being laid off altogether or for a few days each 
week, while the cost of the necessaries of life is gradually advanc- 
ing. THESE CONDITIONS CONFRONT US NOW. How long this 
will last or how far it will go — No one knows. 

Government Employees Are Solid 

We do know that the U. S. Government employee is not laid off 
and will not be laid off and will not be reduced any in pay because 
of the wars, regardless of how long they last or how far reaching 
their effect. Government employees get GOOD PAY during bad 
times and good. 

Your Duty 

YOU have a solemn duty. Those depending on you now, or later 
on, have a right to expect "you to provide for them properly. You 
are expected to look ahead and get into a position which will with- 
stand wars, panics, poor times and the like. ARE YOU DOING IT? 
If not you are shirking your DUTY. 

Don't Shirk 

NOW is the time to begin. Immediately commence preparing, so 
that when the next examinations are held in your town or neighbor- 
hood, you will be ready for them. If you are thoroughly prepared 
you ought to stand high and get an early appointment. 
Your Government Job 

You will then have easy hours and big pay, rapidly increasing 
each year. The position will be yours FOR LIFE, and while your 
friends and neighbors, who now fail to look forward, will be trying 
to exist on little or no pay, you will be contentedly working each day, 
getting your pay on the 1st and 15th of each month, just as sure as 
there is a U. S. Government. 

Get a AVar-Proof, Panic-Proof, Life Job 



Note — In the last number of "The Public Servant" roe published the first of 
a series of exhibits used by a private civil service school to recruit persons for the pub- 
lic service — incidentally) at a profit to itself. This is the second of the series. When 
will Uncle Sam handle this problem himself? When will he undertake systematically 
to recruit men for the civil service as he now does for the military service? And when 
will he undertake to train men IN PUBLIC EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 
for his own great work? 

Why not a civil West Point? Why not a civil Annapolis? 

Why not a civil Annapolis? Why not a civil West Point? 



Conference on aniberjsitiess and public ^erbice 

Philadelphia November 15-16, 1916 



;~— SgO* 



Provost Smith of the University of 
Pennsylvania has announced the following 
Committee on Cooperation in connection 
with the Conference on Universities and 
Public Service to be held in Philadelphia, 
November 15th and 16th: Dr. Clyde L. 
King, Dr. James T. Young, Dr. L. S. 
Rowe, Dr. A. C. Abbott, Dr. Edgar 
Marburg, Dr. A. D. Yocum, and Pro- 
vost Smith as Chairman. 



This is typical of the cooperation re- 
ceived from various social and civic agen- 
cies of Philadelphia. A full announce- 
ment will be given in the next number of 
The Public Servant. Through the 
generous cooperation of the City Club of 
Philadelphia the social headquarters of 
the Conference on Universities and Public 
Service will be at the City Club. 

We are now arranging for hotel head- 
quarters, and a later number of The 
Public Servant will give the details. 
A number of the women's clubs of Phila- 
delphia are cooperating with the Confer- 
ence. This announcement will also be 
given in the next number of The PUBLIC 
Servant. 



At this Conference we are planning to 
raise the question of the relation of high 
schools to training for public service. We 
are seeking opinions from various super- 
intendents and principals of high schools in 
various sections of the country. The op- 
portunities in connection with this have 
been suggested to us by Dr. D. H. Hol- 
brook, Director of Attendance and Voca- 
tional Guidance of the Minneapolis Board 
of Education. A full announcement of 
this will be made in the next number of 
The Public Servant. 

We should be glad to have suggestions 
regarding any phase of this subject. 



Schedule of Meetings of Organizations 

Interested in Training For Public 

Service 

October 24-27 

American Public Health Associa- 
tion, Cincinnati, Ohio. Secretary, 
Dr. Selskar M. Gunn, 755 Boylston 
Street, Boston, Massachusetts. 

November 9, 10, 11 

Association of American Universi- 
ties, Worcester, Mass. Secretary, 
Herman V. Ames, University of Penn- 
sylvania, Philadelphia. 

November 13, 14 

National Association of State Uni- 
versities, Washington, D. C. Secre- 
tary, Guy Potter Benton, University 
of Vermont, Burlington. 



November 15, 16 

Third National Conference on 
Universities and Public Service, 
Philadelphia. Secretary, Edward 
A. Fitzpatrick, Box 380, Madison, 
Wisconsin. 



Association of Urban Universities, New 
York City. Secretary, Frederick B. Rob- 
inson, College of the City of New York. 
November 1 7, 1 8 

Conference on Commercial Educa- 
tion, Philadelphia. Secretary, Edward 
A. Fitzpatrick, Box 380, Madison, 
Wisconsin. 
Nov. 21, 22, 23 

City Managers' Association, Spring- 
field, Mass. Secretary, Ossian A. 
Carr, Niagara Falls, New York. 

November 23, 24, 25. 

National Municipal League, Spring- 
field, Massachusetts. Secretary, Clin- 
ton Rogers Woodruff, 703 North 
American Building, Philadelphia. 



Conference on Commercial (Education 



Philadelphia 



November 17-18, 1916 



Will You Enlist 

in the movement to make govern- 
ment prepared for ALL situations? 

Unpreparedness for war has re- 
vealed to us our amazing unpre- 
paredness for peace. 

Why not definitely help the move- 
ment for a trained personnel in gov- 
ernment so that government can 
meet its day-to-day necessities as 
well as the extraordinary situations 
of war? 

Why not now fill out the blank below 
and send it along? 

The Public Servant 



Society for the Promotion of Training for Public Service 
Box 380, Madison, Wisconsin 

Enclosed please find $ for which enroll me as a 

member of the S. P. T. P. S. for the year ending December, 1916. Please send me 
The Public Servant regularly. 

Name 

Address 

Library membership $2.00 a year. 
Associate membership $3.00 a year. 
Active membership 5.00 

Contributing " 10.00 

Donors " 100.00 " 

Founders 1 000.00 or more. 



Zhc lpublic Servant 

"There can be no higher ambition than that of serving the state, nothing more creditable than to serve it well." 



Number 7 
Oct., 1916 



Issued Monthly except July and August, by the 

Society for the Promotion ot Training for Public Service 

Madison, Wisconsin 



This Issue 
25 cents 



Siiimiii!iiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!iiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii mum iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiininuiiiniiiiiiiiniiuimiiiiuiiiniiii^ 



STo General Jj\ C- 3l23tnfeler 

public servant, soldier, staunch Amercian, bosom friend of Carl Schurz, 
this number of 

lt*f ig ®& e public feerbant 

is dedicated for fits splendid leadership in the movement for civil service 
reform in the city of Milwaukee, in the state of Wisconsin and in the 
United States;'fof his patriotic subordination of partisan attachments to 
great public ends and for his unselfish devotion to every public interest. 



^lllliUnilllllllllillllllllllilllllllflllillllillllM 




Y dream of America is America 
represented in public office by 
its best men. — Charles Evans 
Hughes. 



102 



The Public Servant 



[October 



£be Ipublic Servant 

EDWARD A. FITZPATRICK, Editor 



Issued Monthly by the 




'•7 " w>? 
Madison, "Wis. 



Board of Trustees 
Charles McCarthy .... Madison, Wis. 

F. G. Young Eugene Oregon 

Winston Churchill .... Cornish, N. H. 
Clarence G. McDavitt . . . Boston, Mass. 

Will C. Hogg Houston, Texas 

Zona Gale Portage, Wis. 

Xiel Gray. Jr Oswego, X. T. 

John S. Murdock . . . Providence, R. L 

Parke R. Kolbe Akron, Ohio 

Charles M. Fassett . . . Spokane, Wash. 
Louis B. Wehle Louisville, Ky. 

Director 
Edward A. Fitzpatrick . . Madison, Wis. 



"A Little Child Shall Lead Them" 

No greater service can be done to the 
cause of good government or, to put it 
more concretely, to the cause of efficient 
government in the public interest than the 
education of young America to an appre- 
ciation of the importance of public ad- 
ministration in its relation to public policy 
and of the introduction and extension of 
the merit system in the public service. For 
this reason we wish to extend to the Wis- 
consin Civil Service Reform League our 
heartiest congratulations for its annual es- 
say contests. It is a step in the right di- 
rection. It ought to be emulated by every 
civil service reform league and by every 
civic club in the country. 

To many the essays that are printed in 
this number must be a revelation. The 
young lady who wonders "How many of 
these men would have consented to their 
wives employing three maids where one 
would have served the purpose?" has put 
the case for civil service reform admir- 
ably and in a startling manner because she 
drives it home. Another startling way to 
put the case for the merit principle in pub- 
lic service is: "Civil service is a broad 
application of the commandment, 'Thou 



shalt not steal.' ' Is there a better defini- 
tion of the government than this: "The 
people's business in private we call simply 
'business.' The people's business in com- 
mon we call 'government.' ' 

Notice, too, the passages which these 
young people select for quotation. This 
from Trevelyan: "It was a system which 
as its one achievement of the first order 
brought about the American War and 
made England sick once and for all, of 
Personal Government." And this from 
Daniel Webster: "I concur with those 
who think that there should be a check to 
the progress of official influence and pa- 
tronage. The theories of our constitu- 
tion are plain. It is that government is 
an agency created for the good of the peo- 
ple and that every person in office is the 
agent and servant of the people. Offices 
are created not for the benefit of those 
who are to fill them, but for the public 
convenience." 

But these samples were selected only to 
anticipate your reading the following es- 
says and excerpts submitted by the high 
school students of the state of Wisconsin 
in the annual essay contest of the Wis- 
consin Civil Service Reform League. 



We are glad, indeed, to note that the 
Civil Service Commission itself is issuing 
little bulletins on the subject of civil ser- 
vice for distribution among the schools of 
the state. The Commission through its 
education" 1 and welfare service is doing 
an admirable piece of work and it has 
initiated steps which will make it unques- 
tionably the best state civil service com- 
mission in the country. We congratulate 
the Commission on its good work and 
more on its promise. 



The work that Mr. Doty is doing in 
Los Angeles opens up new and larger op- 
portunities for civil service administration 
in this country. For our educational au- 
thorities there is the very great opportunity 
of serving American democracy at its 
weakest point. Can they see it? Will 
they take advantage of it? 



916] 



Merit System in Public Service 



03 



Merit System in Public Service* 

Parry Moon, Beaver Dam High School, Wis. 



The merit system has grown out of 
the idea that a public official is a servant 
of the people, and holds his position as a 
trust from them. This idea has been 
prominent in America from the first. When 
the colonists settled in this country, there 
was no ruling class. The few leaders 
chosen were the agents, the trustees of 
the people, and were expected to have 
their interests at heart. As the population 
grew, more and more men were needed 
to carry on the work of government; and, 
as a result, many could not be directly 
elected by the people. Those holding the 
lesser positions were appointed by the more 
important officials. Still all of them were 
public servants chosen to carry on the gov- 
ernment the way the majority wished. Af- 
ter the American Revolution, the United 
States was one of the few countries of the 
world where the offices were not held as 
privileges, but as trusts of the people. 
The first six presidents conscientiously 
strove in all their appointments to get the 
best men for the places, regardless of po- 
litical views. Because of this policy, it 
was only necessary to remove seventy-four 
men in the forty years from 1 789 to 1 829 ; 
Washington removed nine; John Adams, 
ten; Jefferson, thirty-nine Madison, five; 
Monroe, nine; and John Quincy Adams, 
two. 

The Spoils System — A Contrast 

Then Andrew Jackson became Pres- 
ident. Wishing to reward those who had 
helped him get into office, he introduced 
the spoils system. Two thousand faithful 
and industrious postmasters were turned 
out of office and Mr. Jackson's friends 
put in. This was the beginning in Ameri- 
ca of the doctrine, "To the victors belong 



the spoils," which has had an extremely 
bad effect upon American politics, both in 
its moral effect and its practical results. 
Many came to believe that it was actually 
wrong not to give offices to the men be- 
longing to the political party in power; 
and, for some reason, the spoils system 
took a strong hold upon the American 
people. It was called the "American 
System," and was pointed at with pride 
by some who thought it showed our 
characteristic shrewdness and progressive- 
ness. The officials were no longer pub- 
lic servants. All they cared for was to 
further their own selfish ends. Every 
time a new party came into power most 
of the civil service employees were dis- 
charged ; and in this way the spoils system 
had a bad effect upon the minds of the 
workers. 

Under the old system many useless 
positions were created just to pay political 
debts. In Illinois thirty men were em- 
ployed at one time to open and shut ven- 
tilators. Most of them did not do any- 
thing for their pay. In a like manner, the 
whole pay roll was "padded" by put- 
ting in two or three times as many men as 
were necessary. The employees were not 
examined as to their fitness, but were ap- 
pointed because of their politics. Of 
course, they did not make good workers; 
and the departments were glaring exam- 
ples of inefficiency and waste. The im- 
mense amount of graft is shown by the 
fact that W. M. Tweed of New York 
City stole about $6,000,000 for himself 
and $60,000,000 for his followers in 
seven years. Professor W. S. Moore, 
chief of the Weather Bureau, said: "I 
do not hesitate to say corruption was ram- 
pant in almost every branch of the public 



* This essay is placed first because of its introductory character— not because it is the best of those 
printed. 



104 



The Public Servant 



[October 



service. A man could sell nothing to the 
government from which somebody did 
not get a rake-off, all the way from the 
receiving clerk up — very high up, some 
times." 

Imagine a large corporation for an 
instant appointing its workmen and su- 
pervisors upon any other basis than fit- 
ness ! Any company using a doctrine like 
the spoils system would probably be a 
bankrupt in less than a year. And yet 
this system, which nearly everyone con- 
cedes to be wrong, still continues in the 
majority of the cities of the United States 
because the citizens would rather pay un- 
necessarily large taxes every year than join 
together and get the merit system adopted! 

The Merit System 

In 1 88 1 , an office-seeker named 
Guiteau, half-crazed by the disappoint- 
ment of not getting an office, assassinated 
President Garfield. This deed aroused 
the country to the need of civil service re- 
form, and in 1883 the merit system was 
established by "An Act to Regulate and 
Improve the Civil Service of the United 
States." By this law the system can be 
extended as much as the President de- 
sires, so now nearly all the Federal ser- 
vice is conducted according to the merit 
system. In 1 884 it was adopted in New 
York and Massachusetts, and later, in 
Wisconsin and Illinois. Since then it has 
been introduced into many other states, 
and some cities, as New York, Chicago, 
and San Francisco. 

Under the merit system, a person wish- 
ing to enter the civil service makes appli- 
cation, and is informed of the time and 
place of examination. The questions are 
as practical as possible, and weight is given 
to experience of the applicants. Politics 
play no part, whatever. Those getting 
above a certain mark are put on the eligi- 
ble list. When the appointing officer makes 
a request for certification, the commission 
gives him the three names standing high- 



est on the list: so the higher an eligible's 
mark, the more likely he is of appointment. 
Any one of the three may be appointed. 
The person chosen is given several months 
probation on trial and, if he does his work 
well, he gets the position permanently. If 
not, he is discharged, and the commission 
certifies the three names then standing 
highest on the list. 

Some Significant Results of the Merit 
System in Public Service 

The merit system in public service has 
decreased the number of employees, got 
better ones to fill the places, done away 
with graft and patronage, and increased 
the efficiency in nearly every place it has 
been introduced. In the Bureau of En- 
graving and Printing, though the work 
has increased over 11 per cent, the work- 
ing force has increased only 1 1 per cent. 

Charles S. Hamlin, late Assistant Sec- 
retary, said, — 

"From the experience I have had in the 
Treasury Department during the past four 
years, I am of the opinion that there has 
resulted a saving to the Government of at 
least twenty-five per cent in cost. From 
the view of efficiency, I believe the sav- 
ing to have been greater." 

In one of the divisions of the Treasury 
Department at Washington, 958 persons 
eventually were employed before the en- 
actment of the Civil Service Law. 539 
were found to be useless, and were dis- 
charged without in any way decreasing 
the amount of work done. Below is a 
table of the Railway Mail Service show- 
ing the decrease in errors under the merit 
system. The great increase in 1890 was 
caused by the Republican administration 
firing most of the Democratic clerks. New 
ones did not know the work, and, of 
course, making many mistakes. The 
marked decrease in errors in 1897 was 
due to the extension of civil service re- 
form. 



916] 



Merit System in Public Service 



105 



Year 


Pieces 

of mail 

distributed 


Errors in 
distri- 
bution 


Per cent 
increase 
in errors 


Per 

cent 

decrease 


1888 


6,528,772,060 
7,026,837,130 
7,847,723,600 
8,546,370,090 
9,227,816,000 
9,772,075,810 
10,033,973,790 
10,377,875,040 
11,166,323,250 
11,571,540,680 


1,765,831 
1,777,295 
2,769,245 
2,005,973 
1,658,457 
1,367,880 
1,281,094 
1,166,682 
1,134,411 
967,538 






1889 


55.81 




1890 




1891 
1692 


27.56 
17.32 


1893 
1894 





17.52 
6.34 


1895 




9 


1890 




2.76 


1897 




14.71 









One department in San Francisco 
spent an average of $200,000 a year 
under the spoils system. The appropri- 
ation has now been cut down to $ 1 1 3,- 
000; and the first year under the merit 
system, $9,600 was saved. This was 
used to build a large brick warehouse for 
storing the election booths. Hundreds of 
other illustrations might be given of the 
satisfactory operation of the merit system; 
for, though it is not perfect, it is by far 
the best method of selecting men for the 
public service. 



Lessons at Home 

"At the present time in Wisconsin the 
Democratic party are adhering to the old 
spoils system. The high officers appoint 
their friends to offices, rather than those 
who are fit for the positions. They even 
often remove the very best of officers, un- 
der false pretenses, and put in some person 
who aided them in their campaigns. Take 
for example in the city of Hayward our 
postmaster, who belonged to the Republi- 
can party, was the best of managers. He 
always attended to his duties as postmas- 
ter and also appointed competent help. 
When President Wilson was elected, a 
Democratic leader of the Hayward poli- 
tics received the appointment. He did not 
receive his position because of superior 
ability to perform his duties, but because 
of his power and influence with the po- 
litical leaders of the Democratic party. 
But not only in Wisconsin's post offices, 
but also those of all the states of the Union 
are in need of reform. Take for example 
the post offices of the northern part of 
Oklahoma. An officer of the postal ser- 
vice was complained of because he did 
not tend to his duties as postmaster. He 
had gone to a presidential speech, closing 
all the post offices and leaving the people 
unable to get their mail. The President 
laughingly replied when told of the in- 
cident, 'It was my speech he was lis- 
tening to.' The man remained in of- 



fice." ({Catherine Mockler, High School, 
Hayward, Wisconsin). 



The Need for Citizen Interest in 
Government 

"We speak of improvements being car- 
ried on in modern business methods, yet, 
we never or hardly ever consider our gov- 
ernment as a part of this great business 
world, improvements in which concern us 
just as vitally as in our private business. 
People complain of taxes and the ineffi- 
ciency of a government; however, they 
look not for the cause nor care a whit 
about politics. As sure as a business 
man who does not inspect his books will 
fail, a country composed of such citizens 
is doomed. A great change in politics is 
brought about only when people learn the 
true facts and demand reform. But how 
are they to learn these facts if they do not 
interest themselves in studying the govern- 
mental reports, in their own business 
books? Surely the political 'bosses' and 
those profiting by these abuses will never 
arouse them. Hence, I say that a govern- 
ment composed of citizens uninterested in 
its business welfare is doomed and, hence, 
it follows clearly that it is the duty of all 
good citizens to request the government for 
such bulletins and to inspect them." (Al- 
phons Welsch, High School, Beaver Dam, 
Wisconsin) . 



06 



The Public Servant 



[October 



The Merit System in Public Service 

Alan BoYDEN, Whitewater High School, Wis. 



The Merit System in Public Service 
is one by means of which the government 
secures, for its assistants, capable and ef- 
ficient workmen. This is accomplished by 
subjecting all applicants for government 
positions to a fair test of their abilities and 
only employing those applicants who 
prove, by answering intelligently all ques- 
tions asked in their examination, that they 
are fit for the particular office in regard 
to the Derforming the duties of which their 
abilities were examined. In other words, 
the government, under this system, takes 
the same precautions in hiring its employes 
as you would in your private business. 
Now when I realize that this is what is 
meant by the "Merit System in Public 
Service," my mind is immediately con- 
fronted by these questions: Why is it 
then that a system of such apparent use- 
fulness is only of comparatively recent 
adoption? Why should it have taken so 
long to become established? Is there 
something about this system which would 
decrease its value in actual service? 

Holding, as I do, the belief that there 
is nothing about the plan itself which 
would render it inapplicable to the con- 
ditions of actual use, I must seek to ex- 
plain the slow growth of the system in 
some other way. After a thoro study 
I came to the conclusion that these propo- 
sitions would fully account for the phe- 
nomenon : 

( 1 ) The extension of the Merit Sys- 
tem has met a fierce resistance from party 
bosses and political machines (hitherto 
no mean force). Why these should so 
strongly oppose the establishment of such 
a system can readily be seen, for it 
would lead to their destruction. If the 
party bosses could no longer offer the 
spoils of office to their henchmen, they 
would receive no support. 



(2) The majority of voters have not 
demanded it vigorously enough, probably 
because they had resigned themselves to 
the existing conditions, believing them un- 
changeable. 

(3) Every great governmental re- 
form is a result of a slow and gradual 
realization of its need on the part of a 
majority of the voters. Years are but 
days in the development of governments. 
"The march of the human mind is slow.'* 
Now I believe that these propositions 
should be accepted to explain the slow 
growth of Civil Service Reform, rather 
than that there is something about the sys- 
tem which would prevent its being sup- 
ported by those voters who have thoroly 
considered it. 

However, the Merit System is now 
quite generally established in city as well 
as in state and national governments, and 
it is gratifying to note that the system has 
proven to be far from impractical. Indeed 
it has proven so beneficial that we may 
safely believe that it has come to stay. 

Let us take a glimpse of the system 
as it stands today in Wisconsin. At its 
head is a commission of three members, 
who are appointed by the governor with 
the advice and consent of the senate and 
who serve for terms of six years each. The 
terms are so arranged that one new com- 
missioner is appointed every second year, 
who learns the duties of his office from 
the other two experienced members. These 
commisssioners hold no other lucrative, 
administrative offices under the state or 
national governments, receive a fixed salary 
based upon the time during which they are 
actually employed in the service of the 
state, and give all their time necessary to 
the duties of their office, viz., to examine 
all applicants for positions in the classified 
service and prepare lists of those who 



1916] 



The Merit System in Public Service 



107 



prove themselves capable of becoming 
efficient government employees. The rules 
and regulations governing the functions of 
this commission are very thoro, eliminat- 
ing every chance for a corrupt practice, 
and the commission itself is run on strictly 
scientific and business-like principles. 
This then is the means used by Wisconsin 
to provide itself with efficient employees. 
It is a system worthy of your support, as 
well as of your admiration. 

But why go to so much bother to get 
good workmen? Why not run the risk 
of getting them under the old system of 
appointment thru political pull? Simply 
for this reason: Experience has shown 
that the Spoils System cannot be trusted. 
And it is no more than could reasonably 
be expected of it, for even if the best men 
did get appointed under the Spoils System, 
how long would they be good workmen 
when wording under the debasing influ- 
ence of the principles of their own system 
which held that offices were created for 
the benefit or reward of certain individu- 
als and not for the good and service of 
all the people? That the Spoils System 
cannot be trusted has been thoroly proven 
by the existence of a great many scandals 
in office previous to the establishment of 
the Merit System. Many books citing 
such instances have been published. When 
you have read all or even a part of them, 
you will agree with me that some reform 
to correct the evils of the Spoils System 
was absolutely necessary. 

But there are some people who believe 
that the Merit System entails more ex- 
pense and loss than the Spoils System. 
They are mistaken ; and we have not 
only theory but statistics to prove this de- 
nial. For the prime object of the Merit 
System, altho when firct established it 
cured the evils of the Spoils System, is 
now to prevent the recurrence of those 
evils. Therein it is a preventative meas- 
ure ; and we may apply to it the old adage, 
"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound 



of cure," with just as great propriety as 
to anything. 

And, finally, is not the Merit System 
simply an application, on a more extensive 
scale, of the same methods which all good 
business men use to provide themselves 
with able workmen? Would you, Mr. 
Business Man, hire a lazy fellow simply 
because he had the same political ideals 
as you? That is preposterous! In fact, I 
dont believe that you would put one of 
your own relatives in a responsible posi- 
tion in your business if you \new him to 
be incompetent. People in olden times 
have made this mistake, but their troubles 
serve to amuse us now and incidentally 
to make us resolve to steer clear of such 
snags. Efficiency is the watchword in 
business of any kind today. Now the 
performing of the functions of government 
constitutes a business not differing in gen- 
eral principles from other privately con- 
ducted businesses. It is only much larger 
than any private business. But is its 
greatness any excuse for its being managed 
more poorly than smaller businesses? 
Rather, I should say, that it should be a 
model of correct business methods and 
efficiency to all others. PEOPLE'S 

BUSINESSES IN PRIVATE WE 
CALL SIMPLY "BUSINESS." THE 
PEOPLE'S BUSINESS IN COM- 
MON WE CALL "GOVERN- 
MENT." Now would not it be wise to 
apply methods, correct in private business, 
to public business or the government? The 
Merit System does this very thing. 

The results already attained by the 
Merit System are very favorable. Books 
full of statistics recording the amounts of 
money saved in various places have been 
published; but there is still much to be 
done. Even tho the applications of the 
system remain undiminished, new advances 
must be made. The system which has 
proven so valuable, while yet only in a 
comparatively early stage of development, 
must be still further extended. And this 
work of extending this beneficial Merit 



08 



The Public Servant 



[October 



System is the work cut out for all good 
citizens for the tomorrows. 

One of the most flagrant and general 
violations of the true principles of business 
in performing the functions of the govern- 
ment is to be found in the appointment of 
postmasters, who are now appointed by 
the President with the advice and consent 
of the Senate, without much regard for 
the appointee's fitness. Most often the 
appointee is given his office as a reward for 
aiding his party. Many are the evils that, 
arise from this method of appointment; a 
part of which are these : ( 1 ) at every 
change of party control a new postmas- 
ter must be "broken in" to the duties of 
his office. This entails a loss of time and 
results in inefficiency. Why not let a man 



hold this office as long as he performs the 
duties successfully? Then we would elim- 
inate this waste of time; (2) a man of 
absolutely no experience in postal work is 
often placed in a position to direct the ac- 
tivities of a body of clerks. To my 
mind it is far more important that the 
head of a department should be experi- 
enced and competent than that the under 
clerfys should be. 

To say the least, the postmaster is at 
present appointed in an incorrect manner 
and performs his duties in an unbusiness- 
like way; and the extension of the classi- 
fied service, the Merit System, to this of- 
fice also, would remedy these evils and 
serve the public good. 



The Unconscious Influence on Public 
Servants 

"Besides this great business value, the 
civil service reform has, in my opinion, a 
moral value. Its influence on the charac- 
ter of the men who have been appointed 
is undoubtedly great. Just as there is an 
1 Unconscious Element in the Discipline of 
a School," so there is such an element in 
the development of men. Unconsciously 
he is being influenced because he realizes 
the honor which has been bestowed upon 
him. He has written, satisfactorily, an 
examination. He has proven his capabili- 
ty and has been selected from others as the 
most efficient. Should he net feel this an 
honor? He is not only working for 
money but working for the betterment of 
the state. He realizes his responsibility 
and takes it. He serves the state be- 
cause he will receive value from it. 'Jus- 
tice' should be his key-word and if it is 
he will deal fairly with everyone. In the 
end he has developed into a strong, influ- 
ential character. He has become broad- 
minded and looks out into a bigger cir- 
cle than the man who worked for his few 
followers and for the spoils of the office. 
He realizes that, although he has his cir- 
cle of friends, he cannot sacrifice his char- 



acter and position for them. If he does, 
he demoralizes himself and in the end is 
looked down upon by the well-meaning 
people." (Anna Schmidt, County Train- 
ing School, Menomonie, Wisconsin). 



The Civil Service Law 

"Acute conditions not theories give rise 
to reforms. In the Congressional election 
of 1 882, following the assassination of 
President Garfield, as an incident in the 
operation of the spoils system, the voice of 
the people commanding reform was unmis- 
takable. A civil service reform law was 
taken up and passed by both houses of 
Congress and became a law with the Pres- 
ident's signature, January 16, 1883." 
(Lawrence Peterson, High School, Hay- 
ward, Wisconsin). 



Public Office as a Political Reward 

"With the development of party gov- 
ernment in the United States the patronage 
placed in the hands of elected officers 
through their power of appointment, has 
led to the giving of offices as a reward 
for partv service." (Grace La Fleur, 
High School, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin). 



1916] 



Does Our Civil Service Need Reform? 



09 



Does Our Civil Service Need Reform? 

RUTH ARNDT, Beaver Dam High School, Wis. 



What is Civil Service? This question 
has been asked a great many times and 
probably as many times has received an 
unsatisfactory answer. CIVIL SER- 
VICE IS A BROAD APPLICA- 
TION OF THE COMMANDMENT, 
4 THOU SHALT NOT STEAL/' 
The term, Civil Service, is used only in 
connection with the government. In this 
connection, many people have viewed it 
from different standpoints. 

The Spoils System from Three 
Viewpoints 

There are three standpoints which 
stand out vividly, and these three stand- 
points have caused almost as much confu- 
sion as the fabled shield caused to the 
travelers approaching it from opposite 
directions. The first point of view is of 
those who serve the public. The second 
point of view is of the public who are 
served. The third point of view is of its 
effect upon both of the above factors. 

What do these three points of view 
amount to? With the employed, it is a 
struggle for fair play. Unhappily, the 
Spoils System is much in evidence. Un- 
der this, men are not chosen because they 
are competent and would prove an aid to 
the government, but they are chosen be- 
cause they are useful to some political 
"Boss," a man of considerable influence 
in his political party. The men are not 
chosen because of merits but because they 
have been able to win the favor of the ap- 
pointing officer. Is this fair play? 

From the point of view of the employ- 
ing public, it is a fight for morality in 
economics. In the "employing public" 
we find two entirely hostile groups, the 
strong party man, and the appointing of- 
ficers. Both seem doubtful about the 
value of the Merit System. But where 



you will come in conflict, not merely in 
practice but in theory, is in the case where 
the appointing officer uses his power of ap- 
pointment, not for his sole private and in- 
dividual advantage but for himself jointly 
with a large number of other persons who 
are in the same way of thinking. Cun- 
ning creeps in and he is forced to appoint 
the man who has introduced the cunning 
or lose his place. The public is entirely 
out of patience with this sort of officer as 
well as the strong party man. It is 
through the latter that so much cunning 
and corruption creeps into politics. 

Now let us look at Civil Service from 
the third point of view, the view of its ef- 
fect. Here we find a strong fight for 
morality in politics. And what is it that 
they are fighting against? It is the political 
"Boss." If we are to make any head- 
way at all, the "Boss" and the Spoils Sys- 
tem must be abolished. We find that 
these two are so inextricably interwoven 
that it is hard, sometimes, to distinguish one 
from another. The political "Boss" con- 
trols a certain section of the country po- 
litically and forces the voters to cast their 
ballots according to his wishes. This ac- 
complished, and the "Boss's" 'man' chos- 
en, the Spoils System continues the work 
by appointing certain men of this group to 
offices. This method is in evidence in all 
parts of the country and in all branches of 
government. 

Merit in the Puhlic Service 

The "Boss" and the Spoils System 
must, as stated before, be abolished if any 
progress is to be made. Undoubtedly the 
best method of eliminating the Spoils 
System is by holding competitive examin- 
ations for all appointive officers, and thus 
having the men chosen according to their 
competency. This system of examina- 



110 



The Public Servant 



[October 



tions is intended to reform Civil Service. 
Under this system, any man, whatever his 
religion, race, or politics are, may apply 
for examinations and be placed upon the 
(waiting) list according to his success in 
meeting the various simple and practical 
tests imposed upon him. If the position 
which he desired to obtain, requires men- 
tal efficiency, the test imposed would be 
to determine whether he was mentally ca- 
pable of filling that position. If the po- 
sition required physical capability, the ex- 
amination would bring out whether he 
was physically fit. To keep out the cor- 
ruption, it has also been suggested that a 
morality test should be given to determine 
the moral ideas of the man. 

IN MODERN TIMES, THE 
VALUE OF A PROFESSIONAL 
TRAINING IS RECOGNIZED EV- 
ERYWHERE, EXCEPT IN GOV- 
ERNMENT. When a railroad is being 
built, the actual responsibility of construc- 
tion falls upon the engineers; they select 
the men who know how to build that road. 
The engineers do not select the men on 
account of religious or political beliefs, 
but because they are capable of accom- 
plishing that work. The other matters are 
irrelevant, if the men are honest in their 
capability, and thus should it be in gov- 
ernmental offices also. 

The idea of merit in Civil Service is 
not a new one for our very first president 
said, "In every nomination to office, I 
have endeavored so far as my own knowl- 
edge extended or information could be 
obtained, to make fitness of character my 



object." Jefferson further brings out this 
point in * * * the only questions con- 
cerning a candidate shall be: Is he honest? 
Is he capable? Is he faithful to the Con- 
stitution?" Grant recognized the abuse 
and wished a strict reform; Garfield went 
a step farther and wished to have Civil 
Service regulated by law. Webster, how- 
ever, probably appeals to us the strongest 
when he says, "I concur with those who 
think that there should be a check to the 
progress of official influence and patron- 
age. The theories of our constitution are 
plain. It is that government is an agency 
created for the good of the people and 
that every person in office is the agent and 
servant of the people. Officers are cre- 
ated not for the benefit of those who are 
to fill them, but for the public conveni- 
ence." 

Conclusion 

Men should be selected for office be- 
cause they merit appointment; because 
they can do what the duties of their of- 
fice requires them to do, to the satisfaction 
and advantage of the public, regardless 
of their politics or religion or private re- 
lationships except to indicate their charac- 
ter and training. 

The Merit System of making appoint- 
ments is democratic and American, for it 
is simply one method of securing honest 
and efficient administration of government. 
In short, the Merit System, wherein merit 
and not "pull" or special favor or political 
usefulness is the basis of appointment, is 
the best method of reform. 



Political Disqualifications for Public 
OfSce 

"When a new party came into power, 
a clean sweep was made of all the import- 
ant offices throughout the country. With 
the results of an election announced, over 
one-half of the people were disqualified for 
public employment. An official did not 
think an V more of employing a stenogra- 



pher from the opposite party than to send 
to Texas for one. This would not have 
been so bad if the best men of the suc- 
cessful party were always selected for 
these places, but the men are chosen not 
because they are competent, but because 
they are useful to the 'boss.' ' (Philip 
Rose, High School, Beaver Dam, Wis- 
consin) . 



1916] 



Civil Service 



lit 



Civil Service 

Harriet Mason, Student, Beaver Dam High School, Wis. 



Civil Service is all service rendered to 
and paid for by a state or nation other 
than that pertaining to military, naval, 
legislative, and judicial affairs. 

A Half Million Public Servants 

There are about 400,000 persons who 
find employment in the Civil Service of the 
United States. Adding to these, those 
who do work for our Government by con- 
tract and those who are connected with 
the legislature and judicial branches of the 
government, you will find there are ap- 
proximately one-half million people work- 
ing for Uncle Sam. 

The majority of these people belong to 
what is known as the classified service, that 
is men. or women who have obtained their 
positions by examinations or are occupying 
a position which is subject to examination. 
The government spends millions of dollars 
for salaries and wages of their employees. 
These range all the way from $75,000 
paid to the President down to $5 paid to 
a backwoodsman who attends to some 
mail matter. 

There are in general three different 
ways in which a person obtains a govern- 
ment position. The higher officials of the 
government, such as ambassadors, judges 
of the supreme court, cabinet officers, 
postmasters above the fourth class, and 
heads of important bureaus or commis- 
sions, nearly 1 0,000 in all, are directly 
appointed by the President. About a 
quarter of a million secure their positions 
by a competitive examination given by the 
Civil Service Commission. The third 
method, by which employees secure their 
positions, is by appointment without com- 
petitive examinations. Such employees 
are said to belong to the unclassified ser- 
vice. 

Along about the eighteenth century, in 



some of the states the practice of using 
public office as a reward to political friends 
was already established and when Jackson 
became President, he began to remove men 
who were opposed to him in politics and 
filled their places with men of his own 
party. A person was given employment in 
the public service not because he was 
competent and trained for his duties, but 
because he was a faithful follower in poli- 
tics. The evils of the "spoils system" con- 
tinued to grow until 1883, when a civil 
service reform was brought about, and at 
the present time a very large number of 
the offices are bestowed not as a reward 
but because of the fitness of the appli- 
cant. 

The Work of a Civil Service Commission 

The Civil Service Commission is a body 
which has charge of the enforcement of 
the provisions of the Federal Civil Service 
law. During a recent year the Civil Ser- 
vice Commission examined nearly 125,- 
000 applicants for civil service appoint- 
ments. This Commission is now pursuing 
a plan by which only such examinations 
as are required for the service will be 
given. This plan will do away with near- 
ly 50,000 unnecessary examinations which 
ordinarily would have to be gone over by 
the Commission and the applicants will 
also receive their ratings at an earlier date 
than otherwise. 

The character of examinations is 
broadening year by year. THERE IS 
A DEMAND FOR EXPERTS IN 
MANY NEW LINES OF ACTIVI- 
TY AND IT IS THE DUTY OF 
THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMIS- 
SION TO SEE TO IT THAT 
PROPER EXAMINATIONS ARE 
GIVEN TO TEST THE ABILITY 
OF THE APPLICANTS OF 
THESE VARIOUS LINES. 



112 



The Public Savant 



[October 



When a vacancy occurs in the Govern- 
ment, the department in which it occurs 
requests the Civil Service Commission to 
send it a list of eligibles. This list con- 
sists of the ratings of the three highest 
eligibles who have passed the examinations. 
But in all cases where a person has been 
honorably discharged from the military or 
naval service, his name will head the list of 
all other persons. Positions in the exec- 
utive department of our Government are 
always apportioned among the several 
states according to their population. 

From the list of employees we find 
that men have a much better chance in 
government service than women, for only 
one-twelfth of the many workers for 
Uncle Sam are women. The laws give 
the privilege of hiring men, if preferred, 
and this is especially so where confiden- 
tial seii>ice is required. 

Some positions are more easily secured 
than others. This is especially true of 
stenographers, for the supply of young men 
has always been sufficient for the demand. 
In positions of more importance the supply 
of eligibles is far smaller than in less im- 
portant ones. There are very often thou- 
sands of eligibles for clerkship where there 
is only one for draftsman. This is ex- 
plained when we say that the government 
pays more for stenographers than other em- 
ployers do, but it also pays less than other 
employers do for the higher positions. 

The rules of the government in regard 
to the civil-service employees are growing 
more and more strict every year. They 
are not allowed to serve on political com- 
mittees, to be delegates to political con- 



ventions, to be workers on election day, 
to circulate petitions having a political ob- 
ject, to be editors of political newspapers, 
or speakers before political meetings. 

One of the Government's problems is 
the promotion of efficient civil-service em- 
ployees. There are generally four meth- 
ods of promotion in this service. The 
first of these is by free selection by the 
promoting officer. The second is that of 
promotion by senority, which has a slight 
relation to the efficiency of the people pro- 
moted. The third method is by competi- 
tive examination. The fourth is by effi- 
ciency records maintained in the offices 
where the clerks have been at work. 

Why Is This, Mr. Citizen? 

The Government service has many at- 
tractive features from the outside, for 
each Government clerk has an annual va- 
cation of one full month. If sick, he is 
given another month. He has frequent 
holidays, half-holidays, every Saturday 
during the heated term, and gets off at 
4 : 30 in the afternoon. To the young man 
in the country or country town this may 
seem an ideal career, but there are very 
few who take up the work and remain 
satisfied with their lot. Those who do re- 
main at it for some time seem to have much 
of the self-reliance and independence tak- 
en out of them. When we \eep this fact 
in mind, we are not surprised to hear a 
Senator, who has observed the service for 
twenty years, tell a young fellow who 
has come to see him that he would rather 
see his boy a good blacksmith than a Gov- 
ernment clerk- 



Three Maids Where One Would Do 

"/ wonder how many of these men 
would have consented to their wives em- 
ploying three maids where one would have 
served the purpose. Not many, I fear, 
and yet it would have concerned only a 
few individuals. In the service of the 
state we employed men who were inca- 



pable and employed them in unnecessary 
places. This concerned many individuals, 
all the taxpayers in the state. Should we 
have been any less reproachful or was it 
any more inconsistent for us to oppose this 
state of affairs?" (Anna Schmidt, Coun- 
ty Training School, Menomonie, Wiscon- 
sin). 



916] 



Quotations 



113 



Real Public Servants 

"Many great men have risen to promin- 
ence in the benefit of the country but are 
not known to the people. Here are a 
few of such men in the United States: 
Dr. Howard, the noted scientist who is 
now head of the Bureau of Entomology 
in the Department of Agriculture. He 
has not only shown the people of the 
United States how to make the country 
the leader in economic entomology, but 
has actually made it the leading country 
in this science. He saved millions of dol- 
lars by his research work and has risen 
to his present position through merit. Mr. 
Pinchot is one of our leading men in the 
great fight for forest preservation. He 
was the first to make headway in this all 
important reform. True, he has made 
many enemies among great lumbermen 
who are thinking of self rather than coun- 
try. He cares not for their opinions. To- 
day he stands foremost in this important 
struggle for the nation's preservation of 
forests. Mr. Pinchot received his pro- 
motion because he gave up comfort, and 
self interest to make personal searches and 
investigations in this matter of forest reser- 
vation. Mr. Sell, also a scientist, stands 
the only unpaid member of the Smithsoni- 



c-ents. 



C^UOtatlODb 
The Spoils System 

"With the development of party or- 
ganizations and interests in the United 
States, however, there early grew up a feel- 
ing of loyalty to party which influenced 
public officials to consult party and per- 
sonal friends in the appointments at their 
command. This system was called the 
spoils system. It is not confined to one 
party; all parties are corrupted by it more 
or less, The spoils system tends to de- 
crease the efficiency of the government by 
making the service poorer, less honest, and 
more costly." (Lawrence Peterson, 
High School, Hayward, Wisconsin). 



an institution. He is one of the most noted 
zoologists and learned men in the world. 
Daily he answers millions of letters to all 
parts of the world, through his pamphlets 
and other material which he has for stu- 



Hi 



is raise m position and wages 
was due to his love of fellowmen. Mr. 
Holmes, the patron of miners, is employ- 
ed on the Federal Geological Staff be- 
cause he has given over his life to the 
prevention of accidents and explosions in 
mines." (Kalherine Mockler, High 
Hayward, Wisconsin) . 



School, 



A Contrast 

"The cost of political campaigns was 
practically paid by the state. The people 
of Wisconsin soon began to see into this 
sort of administration and finally the civil 
service law was passed." # * 

"Before the civil service law, title, 
rank, wealth, etc., count for nothing. The 
person with the most ability to perform the 
work and to perform it right is nearly al- 
ways appointed to the position. Under 
the spoils system the 'political boss' would 
secure a job for a person and as a com- 
pensation he would receive a part of the 
salary." (Arnold Roller, High School, 
Beaver Dam, Wisconsin). 



Civil Pensions 

"In 1883 the civil service act was 
passed. Of course the present process of 
filling government offices has many draw- 
backs and weak points. One objection 
which has arisen is the question of the 
efficiency of old, almost infirm govern- 
ment workers. In many cases clerks who 
have to be wheeled to their desks on roller- 
chairs continue on the federal payroll 
even after they have reached the age of 
eighty years. Some departmental heads 
contend that it would be inhuman to turn 
out the old clerks out of office and thus 



14 



The Public Servant 



[Octobc 



they remain in service, though the law 
strictly requires efficiency in public employ. 
It is estimated that one out of every four- 
teen government employees in Washing- 
ton, D. C, is over sixty-five years old. 

"Many proposals are now being dis- 
cussed concerning these superannuated 
clerks. Congress will not set an age limit 
by which retirement at that age would be 
compulsory without making provisions for 
the clerks after they have retired. Talk 
of an out and out civil pension is looked 
upon by many to be out of the question, 
as the government would then be paying 
$25,000,000 a year for the support of 
clerks who are rendering nothing in re- 
turn. A scheme for a retirement fund is 
being worked out and seems most favor- 
able. The plan is that a certain amount 
shall be deducted each month from the 
clerks' pay and withheld in a fund, with 
four per cent interest. Every clerk of 
seventy must retire and will receive a 
monthly allowance for the remainder of 
his life. This monthly installment paid 
bim is to be determined by the length of 
bis active service." (Winifred Olson, 
Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, High School). 



Citizen Cooperation with Public Officials 

"But, when the civil service reform 
took hold of the matter, honest men, who 
did care to work for everyone, were se- 
cured. People were eager to know them, 
when they knew they had proven them- 
selves capable and would be fair to them. 
As a result, less cliques were formed. 
Everyone felt it his duty to help those in 
the service of the state by cooperating 
with them." (Anna Schmidt, County 
Training School, Menomonie, Wiscon- 
sin). 



Personal Government 

"The Personal and Partisan Govern- 
ment, connected with the evils of the Pa- 
tronage System, culminated in Great Brit- 
ain during the reign of George the Third, 
and it was one of the efficient causes of 
our Revolutionary War. Trevelyan says, 
'It was a system which as its one achieve- 
ment of the first order brought about the 
American War and made England sick, 
once and for all, of Personal Govern- 
ment.' ' (Milton Kuhlman, High 
School, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin). 



Schedule of Meetings of Organizations 

Interested in Training For Public 

Service 

November 9, 10, 11 

Association of American Universi- 
ties, Worcester, Mass. Secretary, 
Herman V. Ames, University of Penn- 
sylvania, Philadelphia. 

November 13, 14 

National Association of State Uni- 
versities, Washington, D. C. Secre- 
tary, Guy Potter Benton, University of 
Vermont, Burlington. 



November 15, 16 






Third National Conft 


irence on 


Universities and Public 


Service, 


Philadelphia. 


Secretary, 


Edward 


A. Fitzpatrick, 


Box 380, 


Madison, 


Wisconsin. 







Association of Urban Universities, 
New York City. Secretary, Frederick 
B. Robinson, College of the City of 
New York. 
Nov. 21,22, 23 

City Managers' Association, Spring- 
field, Mass. Secretary, Ossian A. 
Carr, Niagara Falls, New York. 
November 22, 23 

Conference on Municipal Research, 
Springfield, Mass. L. D. Upson, Pro- 
gram Committee, 100 Griswold St., 
Detroit, Mich. 
November 22, 23 

Training School for Public Service, 
Springfield, Mass. Charles A. Beard, 
Supervisor, 261 Broadway, New York. 
November 23, 24, 25 

National Municipal League, Spring- 
field, Massachusetts. Secretary, Clin- 
ton Rogers Woodruff, 703 North 
American Building, Philadelphia. 



Conference on ainibergitiegs ana public ^erbtce 

Philadelphia November 15-16, 1916 



!L 



PROGRAM 

First Day 

Opening Exercises: 
Welcome 

Morning: 

Is Specific Training for Public Service 

a University Function? 
Is Field Work the Proper Method of 

Training for Public Service? 

Afternoon: 

What Form of University Organization 
is Best Adapted to Develop and to 
Administer Training for Public Ser- 
vice? 
Women and the Administration of Pub- 
lic Business: An Opportunity for 
the Federation of Women's Clubs 

Evening : 

In What Ways May or Should Pro- 
fessional Training be Modified to 
Prepare Men Better for Public 
Service and to Reinforce or De- 
velop Efficient Public Administra- 
tion? 
( 1 ) The Training of Teachers and 
Superintendents and Its Les- 
son for Training for Public 
Service 

(2) Social Justice and Legal Edu- 

cation 

(3) Public Health and Medical 

Education 



(4) Public Works and Engineering 

Education 

(5) Social Work and Training in 

Social Economy 

Second Day 

Morning : 

Wanted: A New National Civil Ser- 
vice Law 

The Case for the Private Civil Service 
School 

The Essentials of a Civil Service Law 

Luncheon: 

What are the Opportunities before the 
High Schools of the Country in 
Training Men for Public Service 
and for Efficient Citizenship? 

Afternoon: 

Why do Men Leave the Public Ser- 
vice? What is the Remedy? 
Training Men in the Public Ser- 
vice 

(a) From the Viewpoint of the Ad- 

ministration 

(b) From the Viewpoint of Uni- 

versity Cooperation 

(c) From the Viewpoint of the 

Civil Service 

Evening : 

Some National Speaker 



Will You Enlist 

in the movement to make govern- 
ment prepared for ALL situations? 

Unpreparedness for war has re- 
vealed to us our amazing unpre- 
paredness for peace. 

Why not definitely help the move- 
ment for a trained personnel in gov- 
ernment so that government can 
meet its day-to-day necessities as 
well as the extraordinary situations 
of war? 

Why not now fill out the blank below 



and send it along? 



The Public Servant 



Society for the Promotion of Training for Public Service 
Box 380, Madison, Wisconsin 



Enclosed please find $ for which enroll me as a 

member of the S. P. T. P. S. for the year ending December, 1916. 
The Public Servant regularly. 



Please send me 



N 



ame 



Add 



ress 



Library membership $2.00 a year. 
Associate membership $3.00 a year. 
Active membership 5.00 

Contributing " 10.00 " 

Donors " 100.00 M 

Founders 1 000.00 or more. 



If you wish to join the Wisconsin Civil 
Service League or similar organization in 
your city or state, we shall be glad to give 
you the information. 

ENLIST. 



XTbc public Servant 

"Tizrz can be no higher ambition than that of serving the state, nothing more creditable than to serve it well. " 



Number 8 



Issued Monthly except July and August, by the 

Society for the Promotion oi Training for Public Service 

Madison, Wisconsin 



Nov., 1916 



public servant, school teacher, formerly Deputy Police Commissioner 
and now Police Commissioner of New York City, constructive admin- 
istrator, this number of 



arfje Public ei>erbant 

is dedicated because he has transformed police administration in New 
York City from a remedial to a preventive, from a negative to a positive 
welfare agency, because he has made a branch of public service hereto- 
fore despised a social mission, because he has demonstrated the value 
of a trained public service and has shown the remarkable results secure:.! 
by training men in the public service and cultivating an esprit d' corps, 



May Training for Public Service 
Learn this Lesson 

"The water chemist to the same president strongly advocated a 
treating* plant at a certain well. The president demurred because it was 
not at that point that water gave trouble. The chemist insisted that the 
water showed more grains of incrusting matter than at any other point. 
The president secured from another official a table showing the number 
of locomotives taking water at each of the tanks and found, as he expected, 
that very few watered at the bad tank, very many at the good tank, whose 
water, containing only half the grains of solid matter, deposited ten times 
as much i^t%he boilers because twenty times as much was used. 

"The trouble with the water-purifying chemist was that he was too in- 
experienced, too limited to pass on the whole subject. His opinion was 
valuable and sufficient as to the grains of solid in each water and at that 
he ought to have stopped." — Harrington Emerson. 



118 



The Public Servant 



[ November 



Ube public Servant 

EDWARD A. FITZPATRICK, Editor 
Issued Monthly by the 




Madison, Wis. 



Board of Trustees 
Charles McCarthy .... Madison, Wis. 

F. G. Young Eugene Oregon 

Winston Churchill .... Cornish, N. H. 
Clarence G. McDavltt . . . Boston, Mass. 

Will C. Hogg Houston, Texas 

Zona Gale Portage, Wis. 

Niel Gray, Jr Oswego, N. Y. 

John S. Murdock . . . Providence, R. I. 

Parke R. Kolbe Akron, Ohio 

Charles M. Fassett . . . Spokane, Wash. 
ILouis B. Wehle Louisville, Ky. 

Director 

Edward A. Fitzpatrick . . Madison, Wis. 



A Forward Step in Civil Service Admin- 
istration 

We have always presumed that when 
there was need for a public servant there 
would be provided Athena-like a fully 
trained, thoroughly capable one immedi- 
ately available. All that we needed to 
do was to announce a civil service exam- 
ination, have it, correct the papers, and 
the man with the highest per cent was the 
very man we wanted — ready for the job. 
Fortunately some civil service administrat- 
ors are no longer so naive. Many have 
realized that it is necessary to train men 
for the civil service, just as men are 
trained for the military service, just as 
men are trained for business, just as men 
are trained for the professions. But civil 
service commissions have done little to 
promote the movement for training for 
public service. Unfortunately, too many 
have remained content with private train- 
ing for civil service examinations instead 
of public training for the public service. 

The beginning of a constructive period 
in civil service administration is admirably 
described in Mr. Doty's paper on "A 
Real Training School for Public Service' 
appearing in this issue. The case is ad- 
mirably put by Mr. Doty in these words: 
"We fix the salary for this desired, 



skilled, experienced public servant. We 
create the job, and the man cannot be 
found. Still the work must be done and 
some inexperienced misfit is given the job 
and the pay. It is true that some of these 
experiments succeed, of course, but when 
the next vacancy occurs we are left where 
we were before, compelled to begin all 
over again." The fundamental need of 
the situation he has shrewdly perceived 
and admirably stated: "During the 
past six months I have come to the definite 
conclusion that we can make no progress 
until we establish and adhere to a legis- 
lative policy which is comprehensive 
enough to provide for service requirements 
years in advance." 

And then he conceives his plan to meet 
the situation — But read his article! 

We commend to all civil service com- 
missions the very excellent idea presented 
in Mr. Doty's paper. May they have 
the vision to use it ! 

We commend the County of Los An- 
geles for performing a very great service 
to public administration in this country. 



The Private Civil Service School 

We requested a president of one of the 
private civil service schools to present a 
paper on The Case for the Private Civil 
Service School at the Conference on Uni- 
versities and Public Service. He re- 
plied in a rather illuminating and startling 
manner thus: "If I had expressed my 
opinion immediately after receiving your 
letter of September 30th I should prob- 
ably have said that there was no "case for 
the private civil service school" and should 
have explained why I had given up the 
hopes I had when I started this school 
something over ten years ago to provide 
training for the public service in addition 
to coaching for the examinations. Fur- 
ther consideration convinces me that no 
one has any right to speak for the private 
civil service schools collectively because 
we are wholly unorganized. I hope that 
this condition will be remedied before very 
long." 

He who runs may read. 



1916] 



A Real Training School for Public Service 



119 



A Real Training School for Public Service 

By F. E. Doty, Secretary and Chief Examiner, Los Angeles County Civil Service 
Commission, Los Angeles, California. 



Legislative and administrative bodies 
empowered to create positions have al- 
ways gone upon the theory that whenever 
a position is created it must be filled forth- 
with by the appointment of a person al- 
ready qualified to do the work. Fore- 
sight is not common to elective officials 
wholly occupied with the present. The 
tendency has been and is to legislate for 
the present. If we want a carpenter we 
hire a skilled man; if we want a book- 
keeper we endeavor to employ a man who 
has been trained by an outside organiza- 
tion. This rule runs through the entire 
gamut of the service. We wait until 
we require the services of a skilled in- 
vestigator and then try to find one full- 
fledged, ready to begin active operations 
in the morning. This plan does not as a 
rule produce wholly satisfactory results. 
It is the most expensive method of achiev- 
ing the desired end. 

Legislative and administrative bodies 
having power to create positions, to fix 
salaries and to prescribe duties, seldom 
make provision for employment and serv- 
ice until the thing has become so urgent 
as to require the employment here and 
now of some one fully qualified to do the 
required work. This opportunist policy 
results in no harm in cases where the 
service is common to private employments, 
because we can always find bookkeepers, 
stenographers, carpenters and plumbers 
when they are needed for the usual routine 
work, but there are many kinds of work 
peculiar to government where training for 
and training in the public service are pre- 
requisite. It is here that our failure to 
have a legislative policy or program pro- 
viding for future years, for natural expan- 
sion of the service, is costly. 

Assume, for example, that we need to 



employ a skilled social service worker in 
the field of public charities, or that we 
need specialists in mental diseases in our 
hospitals for the insane, or suppose the 
Wisconsin Tax Commission will need a 
gradually increasing force of assessors or 
field valuation men, or experts in building 
valuation who shall have practical famil- 
iarity with modern methods of ascertain- 
ing values and in addition thereto shall 
possess education, training and the capacity 
to contribute to the problem of effective 
administration, or again suppose that here 
in Los Angeles County we shall need to 
employ officers having general control of 
the problem of handling delinquent juve- 
niles. At once the short sighted policy 
proves expensive and inadequate. We 
fix the salary for this desired, skilled, ex- 
perienced public servant. We create the 
job, and the man cannot be found. Still 
the work must be done and some inex- 
perienced misfit is given the job and the 
pay. It is true that some of these experi- 
ments succeed, of course, but when the 
next vacancy occurs we are left where we 
were before, compelled to begin all over 
again. 

During the past six months I have 
come to the definite conclusion that we can 
make no progress until we establish and 
adhere to a legislative policy which is com- 
prehensive enough to provide for service 
requirements years in advance. We have 
a training school for nurses in our county 
hospital, and for this service we select 
persons who give promise rather than 
trained and experienced professionals. 
Similarly we have a training school for 
physicians — young internes, graduates of 
medical colleges who devote eighteen 
months to the hospital course with no com- 
pensation except maintenance. In a large 



120 



The Public Servant 



[ November 



way this tells the story of our progress 
here in training for the public service. 

Some time ago I suggested to the board 
of supervisors that we adopt a policy 
looking toward future expansions in the 
service, providing for apprentice positions 
and actual departmental training courses. 
Under this plan the beginning salaries 
would be lower than the prevailing rates 
and after the period of training the appren- 
tices would be eligible for advancement or 
promotion according to their proficiency 
and merit. We have established individual 
efficiency records. In the outdoor relief 
division of our charities department the 
proposal contemplated the creation of a 
limited number of apprentice positions for 
social workers, to be selected by com- 
petitive examination along the lines of 
scholastic preparation, temperamental fit- 
ness and CAPACITY TO DEVELOP 
rather than experience. The intent here 
was to determine the degree of promise 
possessed by the candidate. Those se- 
lected for this position were to devote a 
short period to the work without com- 
pensation, and if their initial efforts were 
encouraging they would be paid fifty dol- 
lars per month for the first year or two 
and advanced later if their services justi- 
fied it. 

This plan was adopted and we found 
it proved very attractive to promising 
young persons of better educational train- 
ing and capacity than we were able to at- 
tract to the examination for the better paid 
position of field visitor, where experience 
in the work is a prerequisite. We were 
unable to obtain a sufficient number of 
skilled, trained field visitors and the present 
plan solves that problem. Also, the 
quality of material offered is better and 
the actual training for our service will 
ultimately be better. 

This county employs twenty-one pro- 
bation officers. The beginning salary for 
the position is $90 per month. When a 
vacancy in this staff occurs we fill it from 
our eligible list which is the result of an 
examination to obtain persons qualified by 
experience and training to undertake the 



work. It is evident that we are not often 
successful because there is no work of this 
nature outside the public service; there 
is no opportunity for persons to get the 
training and experience necessary except 
in the public service. This training is ex- 
pensive to the county government. 

We proposed to either reduce the num- 
ber of probation officers on full pay or 
that additional positions as apprentice pro- 
bation officers be created, at half pay, 
who, after training, will be eligible for 
advancement to vacancies in the regular 
staff. This plan ic substantially the same 
as the one now operating in the charities 
department. The natural increase in the 
volume of business will be satisfactorily 
anticipated and better officers will gradu- 
ally be promoted to the higher positions. 
We expect this plan to be put in effect 
later, 

We plan to expand the application of 
this idea to other departments of the serv- 
ice as fast as possible. Under our method 
of promotional examinations, messengers 
and junior clerks are, in a limited way, 
being developed for positions of greater 
responsibility in several departments. The 
legislative or governing body takes to the 
idea because the arrangement is not ex- 
pensive and to a considerable extent it 
takes care of constant expansion without 
increasing the number of higher paid posi- 
tions. It dignifies the service, puts it on 
a higher plane, and reacts beneficially 
upon supervising officers who are, in the 
very nature of things, forced to give more 
attention to the training of employees. 
Better than ever before it seems to hold 
promise to persons accepting these appren- 
ticeship positions — the promise of an op- 
portunity to maJ^e the public service a pro- 
fession. 

To reiterate, the controlling factor lies 
in the legislative program or administrative 
policy on the part of those who create posi- 
tions and fix salaries. With such a pol- 
icy firmly established actual systematic, or- 
ganized training for the public service is 
possible — not otherwise. 



1916] 



Training Men in the Public Service 



121 



Training Men in the Public Service From the V lewpoint 

or the Civil Service 

By Leonard F. Fuld 
Municipal Civil Service Commission, New York City 



Introduction ' 

From the point of view of the prob- 
lems of selection and training involved, 
municipal employees may be divided into 
three classes, — ordinary employees, pro- 
fessional employees, and specialized em- 
ployees. The selection and training of 
ordinary and of professional employees 
do not involve any exceptionally difficult 
problems; it is in the field of specialized 
municipal employment that the most im- 
portant problems are encountered. 

Ordinary Employees 

Ordinary municipal employees are those 
occupying positions for which a person 
may become qualified by pursuing the 
same course of instruction as will qualify 
for similar positions in private employ, and 
service in which does not necessarily tend 
to disqualify for private employment. The 
position of Stenographer and Typewriter 
is a typical instance of ordinary municipal 
employment. 

As the number of applicants for ordi- 
nary municipal positions is, almost in- 
variably, larger in excess of the demands 
of the service the problem of selection 
becomes the task of making certain that 
only the very best of the applicants is per- 
mitted to enter the city service. In the 
case of Stenographers and Typewriters a 
test in the spelling of twenty words in 
common use but of more than average dif- 
ficulty; a test in copying on the typewrit- 
ing machine a passage of three hundred 
words in five minutes, to measure their 
speed on the machine; a test in tabulat- 
ing to gauge their general intelligence; a 
test in the transcription of two hundred 
and seventy words from their shorthand 
notes in ten minutes, to determine their 
facility in transcribing; and a test in dic- 
tation at a minimum speed of one hun- 
dred words a minute, and transcription, 
together with the usual medical tests and 
character examination, will be found en- 



tirely adequate and sufficient. Similar 
practical tests of fitness can readily be 
formulated for other ordinary municipal 
employments by any competent examiner. 
The problem of the training of those 
in the service is also not difficult. An ele- 
mentary course in touch typewriting for 
employees who are unfamiliar with the 
operation of a typewriting machine; a 
course in elementary English to teach the 
employees the elements of English gram- 
mar and composition ; a course in advanced 
English for stenographers and correspond- 
ents to give them adequate training in the 
preparation of letters and reports, and to 
afford them facility in expressing their 
thoughts with clearness, brevity, and cor- 
rectness ; and a course in advanced stenog- 
raphy which will enable them to increase 
their shorthand speed and to learn the 
correct stenographic outlines for the words 
most frequently used in every day work, 
will be found sufficient to increase the effi- 
ciency of these employees from day to 
day, and to keep them contented by pre- 
paring them for advancement in salary 
and promotion in rank. 

Professional Employees 

Professional municipal employees are 
those city employees who have qualified 
themselves to practice one of the recog- 
nized professions, by completing, at a col- 
lege, the prescribed course of study in 
this profession. The positions of trained 
nurse, and of medical inspector are typical 
instances of professional municipal em- 
ployment. 

The municipal service is generally not 
particularly attractive to professional men. 
The opportunities for making a profes- 
sional career in the municipal service are 
not large and the compensation is, almost 
invariably, much lower than that which 
competent professional men are able to de- 
mand in private life. Most municipalities 
grade applicants for professional positions 



122 



The Public Servant 



[November 



on their professional experience, and even 
though this grading is sometimes coupled 
with a written technical examination the 
professional service in many instances con- 
tains a large number of men past the prime 
of life. These professional employees 
consist principally of men who for one 
reason or another have not been entirely 
successful in the practice of their profes- 
sion, and these men frequently lack the 
ambiticn to advance in rank, or the ability 
to engage in valuable professional research 
work. A professional service recruited 
in this way is likely to deteriorate into a 
staff of professional routinieres. 

A proper organization of any municipal 
professional corps requires the full-time 
service of a highly-paid specialist in the 
profession, and a staff of assistants se- 
lected by the Civil Service Commission 
from among applicants who have com- 
pleted the academic course of study of 
their profession, have secured the state li- 
cense to practice the profession, where 
that is required, and, in the case of medi- 
cal men, have served a year's interneship. 
Additional professional experience should 
be given little additional weight in the 
case of applicants for admission to the 
lowest rank of any professional service. 

Such a staff of young professional men 
should be afforded large opportunities for 
engaging in laboratory research work and 
for pursuing clinical studies under the di- 
rection of the specialist in charge of the 
force. Laboratory periods under com- 
petent direction, clinical studies under 
proper guidance, and frequent lectures by 
eminent specialists, should constitute a 
part of the routine of a professional staff. 
In this way the municipal professional 
service will be regarded as a course of 
post-graduate study. The municipality 
will obtain, at a compensation rate which 
it is financially able to pay, the services 
of ambitious young professional men, and 
these young professional men will be able 
to return to the practice of their profession 
in private life enriched by the additional 
knowledge and experience which they have 
gained in the municipal service. 

Specialized Employees 

Specialized employees are those per- 
forming duties peculiar to municipal ad- 
ministration, in positions which tend to 



disqualify for private employment. It is 
in the selection and training of specialized 
employees that the most difficult problems 
are encountered. 

The positions in the specialized munic- 
ipal service are exceedingly attractive to 
applicants. The authority with which 
many of these specialized employees, who 
are in the city's inspectional service, are 
vested appeals strongly to them; the en- 
trance salary is much higher than un- 
trained men are able to obtain in private 
life, and in most cities no previous train- 
ing or experience is required of applicants 
for these positions, or if previous training 
or experience is required it is generally of a 
character which is possessed by a large 
number of applicants. 

As these specialized municipal positions 
are peculiar to municipal administration 
there are no similar positions in private 
life. It is doubtful, therefore, whether 
it is the best policy for a Civil Service 
Commission to place great emphasis upon 
previous training and experience in the 
case of these positions. If, for the posi- 
tion of Tenement House Inspector, credit 
is given for the quantity of experience as a 
plumber, builder, or real estate manager, 
the staff of Tenement House Inspectors is 
apt to be composed of men past the prime 
of life who will soon reach that age where 
it is difficult for them to perform the du- 
ties of a position which requires consider- 
able physical exertion and mental alert- 
ness. Furthermore, although the entrance 
salary of these positions is attractive, there 
is generally very little opportunity for ad- 
vancement in salary, and practically no 
opportunity for promotion in rank. This 
condition leads to discontent which also 
seriously affects the efficiency of the spe- 
cialized municipal service. 

Private employers generally seek to ob- 
tain for specialized positions of a routine 
character, young employees who can be 
trained by them to perform, efficiently, 
the duties required of incumbents of these 
positions. It would seem that the effi- 
ciency of the specialized municipal service 
would be much improved if a similar pol- 
icy were adopted by municipalities. If, 
for the position of Food Inspector, young 
men and women are selected of more than 
average general education, such as is evi- 
denced by the successful completion of 



1916] 



Training Men in the Public Service 



23 



several years of high school work ; if these 
young men and women are adequately 
trained and competently directed in the 
performance of their duties; if they are 
appointed at such low salaries as their 
lack of previous training may justify, and 
are gradually advanced in salary as their 
increased experience and efficiency may 
warrant, the municipality is likely to ob- 
tain a staff of alert, efficient, well-trained 
Food Inspectors who will serve the city 
for many years, whose efficiency will be 
increasing from year to year as they gain 
in experience, and who will be kept con- 
tented by frequent increases in their sal- 
aries. 

Service Instruction 

It is much to be regretted that most mu- 
nicipalities have neglected the subject of 
Service Instruction to such a large extent. 
If there is any truth in the assertion so 
frequently made that the civil service ob- 
tains more competent but less efficient ordi- 
nary employees than private employers, 
this condition would be remedied by keep- 



ing the highly competent ordinary em- 
ployees efficient by keeping them con- 
tented. An adequate Service Instruction 
tending to qualify them for more important 
positions at higher salaries would probably 
solve this problem. 

The difficulty experienced by municipal- 
ities in obtaining, at salaries which they 
are able to pay, professional employees 
who can perform the city's professional 
work efficiently, can readily be overcome 
by making municipal service, by means of 
adequate Service Instruction, a period of 
post-graduate study which will enrich the 
professional employee for his further ser- 
vice in private life. And the problems of 
superannuation and lack of ambition in 
the specialized municipal forces, of which 
city executives frequently complain, would 
disappear if these forces were composed 
of young men and women trained by the 
city instead of being composed of older 
men and women who have gained in pri- 
vate life what is believed to be qualifying 
experience. 



Ability — Not Location 

The non-assembled civil service ex- 
amination for chief examiner for the 
Philadelphia Civil Service Commission 
came to a formal close on Jun_ Ivvelfth. 
It had been advertised widely throughout 
the country and was open to any citizen 
of the United States who possessed the 
minimum qualifications of training and ex- 
perience. 

The fact that this examination was not 
limited to residents of Philadelphia has 
called forth adverse criticisms from vari- 
ous quarters, but is a source of gratifica- 
tion to all who appreciate the handicap of 
residential limitations in public employ- 
ment. 

To characterize as provincial local resi- 
dence requirements for non-policy- deter- 
mining public servants is too mild a criti- 
cism, and it is based upon the fallacy that 
local residents are really benefited. In 
this connection it should be recalled that 
the difficulty of changing from the public 



service of one city to that of another has 
been one of the main reasons why munici- 
pal service has been unattractive in the 
past. It is unfair to expect a man of am- 
bition to spend years in perfecting himself 
in some branch of municipal administration 
when he knows that he will not be able 
to make use of that training in any other 
city in the country. Let Philadelphia 
stand up for principles that hold out the 
biggest future for Philadelphians ! 

More important still is the consideration 
that residence restrictions of this charac- 
ter limit the field upon which a city or 
state may draw for experts in governmental 
administration. It is small wonder that in 
the past our city governments have been 
disappointing from the standpoint of re- 
sults, when we bear in mind that we have 
done nearly everything that is humanly 
possible to exclude the expert public ad- 
ministrator from our municipal service. 

We still have evidences that Philadel- 
phia has not been wholly liberated from 
(Continued on page 180) 



24 



The Public Servant 



[November 



Training in Public Service 

as conducted by the 

Wisconsin Civil Service Commission 

ALLEN M. Ruggles, In charge of Educational Service 



Principles That Must Be Recognized 

For eleven years the Wisconsin Civil 
Service Commission has been working to 
get into the service of the state the best 
fitted of its citizens. The watchword of 
the Commission has been: "The Best 
Shall Serve the State." This movement 
for higher standards in public service has 
resulted in the employment of people of 
real ability who are wide-awake, alert and 
interested in their work — people who take 
pride in the quality and quantity of that 
work and invite comparison with the em- 
ployes of any private business. The cali- 
ber of Wisconsin's public service is high. 

First class employes insure a high type 
of service but not the maximum of effi- 
ciency. But with such a personnel as 
Wisconsin has in its public service, the 
possibilities of developing an exceptionally 
high degree of efficiency are big. 

Mr. Richard Feiss, of Cleveland, says: 
"The main part of scientific employment 
begins after the act of hiring is com- 
pleted." The real problem of service is 
ultimately one of personnel. It is the 
question of the reaction of employes to 
their duties and to the conditions under 
which they work. The lasting kind of 
efficiency comes only from within an or- 
ganization. It is based upon a thinking, 
alert and growing personnel. 

Efficiency results from education and 
stimulation. Training within the service 
is necessary to progress. Each employe 
should be doing something definite and in 
a systematic manner to improve his work. 
Every such employe should be impressed 
with the significance and social nature of 
the service he is rendering as a public 
servant. 

Only as the state is a model employer 
can it expect the best from its employes. 



There must be justice in the matter of 
salary apportionment, salary increase for 
efficient service, proper incentive in the 
form of well-defined lines of promotion, 
and a manifest interest in the welfare of 
the employes. Attention to these on the 
part of the state is necessary to arouse in 
the employes the spirit which will enable 
them to give to the state their best. In- 
centive, inspiration and progress are essen- 
tial in bringing out the best. These fac- 
tors are considered by the model employer 
and appreciated by the worth-while em- 
ploye. 

Iii order to assist in applying these 
principles the Wisconsin Civil Service 
Commission has organized an Educa- 
tional and Welfare Service. This work; 
supplements that of classification and 
standardization which the commission is 
also carrying on. The one helps the 
other. Through the Educational and 
Welfare Service the Commission is en- 
deavoring to raise the standards of serv- 
ice and through training to stimulate 
and assist employes to give to the state 
their very hest. 

This work to date has consisted mainly 
of conferences, the use of circulars and 
the organization of physical activities. 

The Conference Idea 

The plan for stimulating and educating 
employes through conferences is three-fold 
in nature. It involves three types of con- 
ferences : 

1 . General conferences of the entire 

service with inspirational talks 
and reports on the work of spe- 
cial conferences and other activi- 
ties of general interest. 

2. Conferences or classes of those en- 

gaged in the same kind of work, 
i. e., accountants, statisticians* 
stenographers, etc. 

3. Departmental conferences. 



J916] 



Training in Public Service 



125 



Inspirational Meetings 

General meetings or conferences have 
been found an important factor in stimu- 
lating employes to a higher degree of effi- 
ciency. The talks at these meetings are 
inspirational in nature and in most cases 
emphasis has been laid upon the social 
significance of the public service and upon 
its attendant responsibilities. The state 
employe in Wisconsin is far from looking 
upon a state job in the classified service as 
a soft snap. It is to be desired, however, 
that he feel more strongly the social sig- 
nificance of his job, and realize clearly 
the close connection of his work with the 
public welfare and with state and national 
progress. At these conferences the Em- 
ployes' Welfare Committee has made its 
reports. 

The speaker at the first of these meet- 
ings opened his talk with the following 
words : 

"This is an extraordinary occasion. It 
is a very dramatic incident when you 
can get public office people to so far be- 
lieve that their work is dependent upon 
efficiency and personality and the way 
they do it as to come here with the idea 
of improving themselves." 

"Men and women should be proud to 
be in public service, proud to work in 
an office that has not a "clock-watcher" 
in its service. I knoAv an office in the 
capitol where men have put in an aver- 
age of four or five hours a day overtime 
for the last two years. It is not com- 
mented upon and people do not think it 
is extraordinary but fifteen years ago 
they would have said that an employe 
to so serve them was insane." 

The following topics of talks already 
given show the nature of these general 
meetings : 

"Keying up the Office Organization." 

"Alertness for All Service." 

"Health and Business Efficiency." 

"Quality, Quantity and Mode in Pub- 
lic Service." 

"Books and Reading." 

"Possibilities for Growth and Ad- 
vancement in the State Service." 

Group Conferences 

At the conferences of those engaged in 
the same kind of work employes discuss 



their common problems and consider the 
best methods of work. Aside from in- 
creased individual efficiency, the confer- 
ences have also developed an esprit de 
corps among the employes and have given 
to them that added inspiration that comes 
from discussion with those doing the same 
kind of work. 

Filing and Index Clerks 

The conferences for filing and index 
clerks were led by those in the service who 
had made a marked success in this field 
of work. Outlines were issued in con- 
nection with each meeting and at the close 
a circular embodying the suggestions made 
at the meetings was issued for the benefit 
of those who attended. One of the help- 
ful features of this series was the inspec- 
tion of the files in the offices of different 
departments. The following topics give 
an idea of the practical nature of this se- 
ries: 

"The Filing of Correspondence." 

"Alphabeting and Indexing." 

"Library Methods in Filing and In- 
dexing." 

"The Use of the Cutter Order Table 
in Office Filing." 

"What Order and System Mean in 
Efficiency." 

"Round Table Discussions." 

"Inspection of the Files of the Secre- 
tary of State." 

"Inspection of the Files of the Indus- 
trial Commission." 

"Inspection of the Files of the Tax 
Commission." 

Departmental Librarians 

It was found that many of the depart- 
ments did not have a satisfactory method 
of caring for pamphlets, circulars, notes, 
clippings, etc., and of keeping in touch 
with material of this nature that would be 
of assistance to departmental officers. In 
many cases the care of this material was 
given over to a clerk who was not familiar 
with library methods. 

To stimulate interest in the possibilities 
of a well-kept departmental library and 



26 



The Public Servant 



[Nc 



iber 



to assist those in charge to become more 
efficient, a series of six conferences was ar- 
ranged. The co-operation of the Wis- 
consin Library Commission made this se- 
ries possible, the conferences being led by- 
expert librarians from that commission. 

These librarians visited the departments 
before the conferences and based their dis- 
cussions upon the actual conditions found. 
Individual help was also given to those 
who attended. The conference topics 
follow: 

"Making the Most of a Departmental 
Library." 

"The Libraries of the Capitol." 

"Securing Material for a Departmental 
Library." 

"Additional Material in Madison Li- 
braries." 

"Keeping a Departmental Library in 
Order." 

"Finding Material in a Departmental 
Library." 

The Capitol Police 

Other classes of the service have met 
in similar conferences. A series was held 
for the capitol police. The keynote of 
this series was struck at one of the first 
meetings when one of the speakers said: 

"The police function is public service. 

"It is not merely to prevent people 
from walking on the grass, or to prevent 
rowdyism in corridors or destruction of 
public property, it must serve positive func- 
tions too. 

The capitol police constitute a kind 
of reception committee for the people 
who visit the Home of the Government, 
expediting them if they are on business 
and assisting them in seeing everything 
worth seeing or that which they wish 
to see. This, of course, implies that the 
police know the capitol and the state 
government. The qualities we must look 
for in the police are therefore an un- 
failing courtesy, a pleasantness of man- 
ner, a directness, and a knowledge of 
the capitol and of the state. They must 
always be on their job." 

At these meetings instruction was given 
on the architecture of the capitol, on its 
marbles and granites, and on the paint- 



ings. The attitude of the police toward 
visitors to the capitol was a prominent 
topic of instruction and discussion. The 
object of the meetings was more efficient 
service of the public. 

Janitors 

A successful series of conferences for 
janitors was also held including instruc- 
tion in and discussion of such topics as: 

"The Care of Woodwork." 

"The Care of Furniture." 

"Dust and Dusting." 

"What a Janitor Should Know about 
Air." 

The School for Engineers 

The State Engineering Department has 
co-operated splendidly with the Civil Ser- 
vice Commission in its educational work. 
At the suggestion, and with the co-opera- 
tion of the engineering department, the 
Civil Service Commission carried on in 
July a three-day school or conference for 
power plant engineers in the service of the 
state. The attitude of the boards and 
departments interested was most gratify- 
ing. Each normal school and each penal 
and charitable institution sent its chief 
engineer to this school. 

The School was a marked success. 
The talks and discussions were not the- 
oretical but were practical in nature. "Ex- 
ample and Experience" was the keynote 
of every part of the program. It was 
education in service through the exchange 
of experience. Man to man the engineers 
talked over their problems between meet- 
ings. At the meetings they listened to 
those who had made special studies and 
added their own experience to the general 
discussions. 

The following extracts from reports 
made by the engineers to their superin- 
tendents indicate the common attitude 
toward the School. One wrote: 

"I appreciate the efforts of the men 
who took part in the program, and their 
desire to help us. They endeavored to 
make us feel that we are a necessary part 
of the state service, and that it is up to 
us to equip ourselves with the knowledge 



916] 



Training in Public Service 



127 



necessary to perform our duty in the best 
possible manner." 

Another wrote: 

"The mingling of the engineers, talk- 
ing over work done in their respective 
power plants, was very helpful. I heard 
that a certain gas producer was a failure 
in economy, on the other hand, I gave in- 
formation to several on an efficient boiler 
compound feeder that we have in use here, 
and on other things that are of value." 

Among the topics discussed were the 
following: 

"Power Plant Operation." (Illus- 
trated) 

"Safety First." (Illustrated) 

"Engine and Boiler Testing." 

"Power Plant Records." 

"Feed Water Treatment." (Illus- 
trated) 

"Coal Analysis." (Illustrated) 

"Electrical Operation." 

Inspectional trips made to the Capitol 
Power Plant, the Central Heating Plant 
of the University and the University 
Steam Laboratories added much to the 
value of the School. These trips were 
directed by the State Engineer. 

From all sides the School was declared 
a marked success. It is planned to make 
it an annual affair. 

Departmental Conferences and the Per- 
sonal Factor in Service 

Real efficiency is the result of active 
personality. A mechanical organization, 
no matter how carefully worked out, no 
matter how well backed by time studies 
and statistics, is self limiting in its effi- 
ciency. Growth is limited. Output is 
limited. For real continuing efficiency 
personality must be the factor emphasized. 

In every department personalities are 
back of the operations and processes car- 
ried on. The attitude of these personali- 
ties is more important than is the plan of 
work. When a proper attitude exists on 
the part of employes suggestions for im- 
proved plans of work and organization are 
welcomed. Then there is personality plus 
plan. When plans are thrust upon the 



personnel of a department and the proper 
attitude has not been developed on the part 
of employes there is only a mechanical 
response. There is plan minus its possi- 
bilities when backed by the right attitude 
of employes, the moving personality of co- 
operative force. 

Sometimes these personalities in the de- 
partment get into a rut. Their work falls 
into the dull monotony of routine. Noth- 
ing draws them forward. The depart- 
ment head fails to realize what potentiali- 
ties lie hidden behind this apparent apathy, 
what telling forces for departmental effi- 
ciency are held in leash by each of these 
personalities. Interest and enthusiasm are 
necessary to set them free. 

There is no reason why in the state ser- 
vice every employe should not be alive with 
interest and enthusiasm in his work. 1 he 
state service should vibrate with interest 
and keen appreciation of the work car- 
ried on by the departments. 

To this end the departmental confer- 
ence which includes all the employes of 
the department is a big factor. 

The Civil Service Commission holds 
regular monthly conferences attended by 
the entire office force. At these confer- 
ences part of the time is given over to the 
discussion of some phase of the move- 
ment or government activity which the de- 
partment represents while the remainder of 
the time is taken up with the discussion 
of some one or more problems of office 
practice and procedure. 

Regular departmental conferences 
should be planned to lead to the follow- 
ing: 

A free discussion of office problems ; 
A general knowledge of the phase of 
government which is represented in 
the work of the office ; its history and 
its progress in other states. 
The stimulation of every employe to be 
continually interested in some prob- 
lem definitely connected with his own 
efficiency and that of the office. 
An increased esprit de corps and pride 
in the work of the office. 



128 



The Public Servant 



[November 



Circular Letters 

None in the service of the state should 
be allowed to fall into a rut, lose interest 
in what others are doing in their special 
line of work or feel that their education 
is finished. Circular letters gotten up in 
a style to catch the eye of employes and 
drive home some bit of information or im- 
press upon them some suggestion, do much 
to keep the service alive. The Commis- 
sion is at present sending circular letters 
to the following two classes of institu- 
tional employes: 

Engineers and Firemen. 
Farmers and Gardeners. 
As a result of a circular letter describ- 
ing the Capitol Power Plant Service 
Club, a real live organization started by 
the employes of the capitol power plant 
several years ago, a similar club was or- 
ganized at the State Sanitorium and it is 
expected that the organization of others 
will follow. 

As a type of the letter sent to the insti- 
tutional farmers and gardeners — the last 
circular was a report of the experience of 
the head farmer at the Industrial School 
for Boys. It told of the raising of al- 
falfa on the Industrial School farm and 
was full of helpful suggestions for the 
other institutional farmers. 

The State Commissioner of Agricul- 
ture and professors of the University De- 
partment of Agriculture are assisting in 
getting out the letters to farmers and gar- 
deners. 

Welfare Work 
Wisconsin wants bright happy, physic- 
ally strong and optimistic people in its ser- 
vice. To this end the Wisconsin Civil 
Service Commission is encouraging in ev- 
ery way possible organizations and activi- 
ties that lead to this result. The com- 
mission has worked through committees in 
the organization of a base ball league with 
a regular schedule of games and a tennis 
club which laid out courts on the grounds 
of the Capitol Power Plant and a hiking 
and camera club. 



Plans for Future Development 

At present, aside from carrying out and 
developing the activities already started, 
the commission is working on plans for a 
closer co-operation with the University Ex- 
tension Division to the end of exerting a 
greater force in improving the state service. 
With the Extension Division, located as it 
is, with the machinery already in opera- 
tion for carrying on almost any phase of 
educational work the commission is con- 
vinced that Wisconsin has the means of 
developing a system of training in public 
service and for public service that will 
make possible a higher standard of effi- 
ciency for public employes than has ever 
before been obtained. 

The Commission, in connection with 
the Extension Division, is establishing cer- 
tain courses that will be known as Service 
Courses. These courses will be short ex- 
tension courses based directly upon the 
needs of the particular class of service for 
which they are prepared. 

Upon completion of a course the em- 
ploye will receive a certificate signed by 
the Instructor, the Dean of the Extension 
Division, and the Secretary of the Civil 
Service Commission. This will have the 
value of a regular extension certificate, 
plus the value resulting from the approval 
of the Civil Service Commission signifying 
the adaptability of the course to the needs 
of the service and thus indicating its prac- 
tical nature. 

During 1916-17 Service Courses will 
be offered to engineers and firemen and 
one to clerks and stenographers. 

Service Courses for Clerks and 
Stenographers 

The Class for clerks and stenographers 
will be held in the Capitol once a week 
for ten weeks and will be conducted by a 
professor from the University School of 
Commerce. The course will bear on the 
subject of "Correct and Effective Busi- 
ness Letters" covering form, punctuation, 
correct use of words, paragraphing and 
sentence structure, organization and style. 



916] 



Training in Public Service 



29 



At the close of several of the classes a few 
minutes will be reserved for talks by state 
officers who will touch such problems as: 
"Initiative," "Sense of Responsibility," 
"Qualities of a Secretarial Clerk," etc. 

This course will be based upon a study 
of the definite needs of the service along 
the lines indicated above. Before it is 
offered the course will be approved by a 
committee of department heads. 

Service Courses for Engineers and 
Firemen 

The Service Courses which will be of- 
fered to engineers and firemen are corre- 
spondence courses and have been exam- 
ined and approved by the state power 
plant engineer. Lessons will be sent to all 
the men at the same time and at the rate 
of one lesson a month. With this regu- 
larity a greater esprit de corps will be 
developed. Circulars supplementing the 
work of the courses may be sent out by 
the Civil Service Commission, and the 
state power plant engineer as he goes about 
from one power plant to another will know 
just the problems on which the men are 
working and thus be of greater help and 
inspiration to them in their work. 

Three courses will be offered — one for 
firemen, one for assistant engineers, and 
one for chief engineers. The courses will 
not be compulsory but the Civil Service 
Commission and the Boards concerned be- 
lieve that the interest an employe takes in 
increasing his efficiency is an index to his 
value to the state and that it should serve 
as a guide in regulating his salary increase 
within the service. 

The following recommendations have 
been made: 

1. That all firemen take the course of 

study designated for their 
class of the service. 

2. That all Assistant Engineers — 

(a) Take such a course of study 
as is designated for their 
class of service, — or 



(b) Take the equivalent of sucli 
a course of study, ap- 
proved by the Engineer- 
ing Department and the 
Civil Service Commission. 

3. That all Chief Engineers — 

(a) Take such a course of study 

as is designated for their 
class of service, — or 

(b) Take the equivalent of such 

a course of study, ap- 
proved by the Engineer- 
ing Department and the 
Civil Service Commission. 

(c) Carry on systematic, experi- 

mental or research work 
in connection with power 
plant operation, such 
work to be approved by 
the State Power Plant 
Engineer, and written up 
in report form at the end 
of the year. 

The course for firemen consists of six 
lessons. "It is an intensely practical 
course, written in the simplest possible lan- 
guage. It teaches the manual operations 
of firing without any reference to any the- 
ory of combustion or any calculations. It 
is intended to show how to obtain the very 
best results in efficiency and smoke pre- 
vention with hand fired boilers burning 
soft coal." The topics treated are: 

"Making Good Firing Possible." 

"Practice of Good Firing." 

"Regulating Draft and Feed Water." 

"Cleaning Fires — Clinkering." 

"Coal." 

"Care of Boilers." 

A course of this nature cannot but 
stimulate firemen to give more thought and 
attention to their work. 

It is believed that this is just the be- 
ginning of a movement for systematic and 
practical training within the service which 
will do much toward bringing about the 
maximum of efficiency. The educational 
work as outlined in this paper is, how- 



130 



The Public Servant 



[November 



ever, only a part of the work which the 
Civil Service Commission is carrying on 
for the improvement of the service. 

The Necessary Incentive 

However ambitious men may be, the 
fundamental instincts and interests play 
the large part in determining action. The 
most prominent of these fundamental in- 
stincts is that of preservation which in this 
world and age depends upon the amount 
of salary which one receives. If, there- 
fore, the state is not only to mete out jus- 
tice but also arouse the most powerful 
factor for the improvement of service it 
must see to it that a salary reward is the 
end set for educational work. This 
means a just salary schedule, a well- 
worked out system of promotions and a 



close correlation between educational work 
and promotional examinations. 

The Objective 

The best private concerns in the coun- 
try carry on educational and welfare work 
not from a philanthropic motive mainly, 
but because it pays in service returned. 
It is to the advantage of any business to 
have employes growing, increasing their 
possibilities of service and broadening their 
interests. Only as employes are well de- 
veloped and mentally alert can they render 
the most efficient service. 

In all this work the Wisconsin Civil 
Service Commission is aiming to do one 
thing — to increase the efficiency of the 
state service, — to make the standards of 
public service at least as high as those 
reached in the very best private business. 



(Continued from page 

this false conception of administrative pol- 
icy. Attached to nearly every ordinance 
appropriating funds to city or county de- 
partments, we find the proviso: 

"That all employes of this depart- 
ment, now or hereafter employed, shall 
be citizens of the United States and 
bona fide residents of the City of Phil- 
adelphia at least one year prior to their 
employment, and shall remain bona fide 
residents during such employment." 

The recent attempt to deny promotion 
to one of our high school educators on the 
ground that he did not live within the city 
limits of Philadelphia is another indica- 
tion of the persistence of this mistaken 
idea. 

On the other hand there are hopeful 
signs. The Philadelphia Civil Service 
Commission has waived the residence re- 
quirement in numerous instances when high 
grade positions in the city service were to 
be filled. The New York and Chicago 
Commissions have done likewise, and 
smaller cities are following their lead. 

In Great Britain even members of the 



House of Commons need not be residents 
of the locality in which they are elected, 
and expert administrators may come from 
the remotest corner of that vast empire to 
fill positions for which they have superior 
qualifications. 

Why should we Americans continue 
the feudal practice of keeping those pub- 
lic servants who do not determine policies 
bound to the soil? — From Citizens' Busi- 
ness, Philadelphia Bureau of Municipal 
Research. 



A Sound Financial Basis 

The Society for the Promotion of 
Training for Public Service is organized 
for a five year period. It will automatic- 
ally cease to be in 1920. We are very 
anxious, indeed, to put it on a secure 
financial basis for the remaining three 
years. We are anxious to secure pledges 
of from one hundred to one thousand dol- 
lars a year for the next three years. Will 
you help us? Will you suggest people 
who might be willing to sign such a 
pledge? Will you sign such a pledge? 



Would you help m finance: 
An active propaganda for 

A National University 

for 

Training for Public Service 

What is wanted at Washington is not another university like 
Yale, Harvard or Columbia, nor like Minnesota, California or Wis- 
consin nor any of the other existing universities. What is wanted is 
an agency — not a building — to utilize the extensive and rich edu- 
cational opportunities of the national public service for the education 
of the new type of public servant and citizen which the increased 
social demands of modern community life demand. 

Tell us that you will help! 
Tell us to what extent! 
Let us write you in detail about it. 



Society for the Promotion of Training for Public Service 
Box 380, Madison, Wisconsin 



TO LIBRARIES 

The Public Servant is indispensable to libraries who wish to keep currently 
informed on the following subjects: 

Training for Public Service 

University Service to Communities 

Civil Service Reform 

Professional Training 

Accountants, Engineers, Lawyers, etc. 

Part-time Education 

Welfare Work for Public Employees 

Bibliographies will be a feature of The Public Servant during the coming 
year. 

The papers presented at the National Conference on Universities and Public 
Service are published in The Public Servant. 

The numbers of The Public Secant published to date may be secured for 
one dollar. 



Society for the Promotion of Training for Public Service 
Box 380, Madison, Wisconsin 

Enclosed please find two dollars ($2.00) for which enroll the undersigned as a li- 
brary member of the S. P. T. P. S. for the year ending December, 1917. Please 
send The Public Servant regularly. 

Name 

Address 

P. S. This class of membership is open to bona fide libraries. 



P. S. Add a dollar if you wish to receive the numbers of The Public Servant 
that have already appeared. 



Ebe public Servant 

' ' There can be no higher ambition than that of serving the state, nothing morelcreditable than to serve it well. 



Numbers 9-10 



Issued Monthly except July and August, by the 

Society for the Promotion ot Training for Public Service 

Madison, Wisconsin 



Dec, 191 6— 
Jan., 1917 



fIlllli!!!l!IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!:!lllllllll!lll!lll||||||||l!lllinilllllllllllllllllllllll!llll!llllllllllllllilllllllllllH 

| To V. Event Macy | 

| public servant, former Superintendent of the Poor of Westchester County, j 

| New York, now County Commissioner of Charities and Correction, | 

| able administrator, consecrator of his personal wealth to commonwealth, j 

| conserver of childhood, this number of | 

| The Public Servant | 

| is dedicated for his remarkable constructive public service in that most | 

| backward of our governmental units, the county, for his demonstration | 

j of the value of trained public servants and of the social potency of em- | 

| cient public service, and for establishing new standards for the public | 

1 administration of charities and correction. 

= E 

Illlllllll!llllllllllllllinilllllllllllllllllllll!ll!lll!lllll!llllllinilllllilll!llllll[HII!;illllllllllllll!lllllin 



£ £ A N UNDERGRADUATE of a great university (he was 
J^\^ possessed of more ideals than worldly wisdom) once pro- 
posed that his Alma Mater found a school of journalism 
with a daily newspaper of national proportions as its laboratory. After 
taking thought for what might appear a suitable interval, the univer- 
sity authorities rejected the scheme. And the reason they gave for do- 
ing so was, as nearly as can be ascertained, as follows: to conduct 
such a newspaper would oblige the university to express itself on cur- 
rent political and economic questions." — Seymour Deming. 



134 



The Public Servant 



Dec— Jan. 



JLbc public Servant 

EDWARD A. FITZPATRICK, Editor 



Issued Monthly by the 




Madison, Wis. 



Board of Trustees 
Charles McCarthy .... Madison, Wis. 

F. G. Young Eugene Oregon 

Winston Churchill .... Cornish, N. H. 
Clarence G. McDavitt . . . Boston, Mass. 

Will C. Hogg. Houston, Texas 

Zona Gale Portage, Wis. 

Niel Gray, Jr Oswego, N. Y. 

John S. Murdock . . . Providence, R. I. 
Parke R. Kolbe ...... Akron, Ohio 

Charles M. Fassett . . . Spokane, Wash. 
Louis B. Wehle Louisville. Ky. 

Director 
Edward A. Fitzpatrick . . Madison, Wis. 



"The administration of govern- 
ment lies in getting proper men." — 
Confucius. 

Civil Service 

There is a striking paragraph on civil 
service in a "Partial Report of the Effi- 
ciency and Economy Committee of Kan- 
sas" that all those desiring an improved 
civil service ought to carefully weigh. 
That public-spirited men will conscien- 
tiously make such a statement indicates 
the need for a general campaign of edu- 
cation on what civil service reform is aim- 
ing at. There is a sentence in this para- 
graph that the advocates of the model 
civil service law might well ponder. It 
is: "The modern and ideal civil service 
commissions, as advocated by their ardent 
enthusiasts in the United States today, are 
modern oligarchies.** Without further 
comment let us quote: 

"This committee is inclined to doubt 
the success of the civil service law. Un- 
derstand, we are thoroughly in accord 
with the purpose. Some of our observa- 
tions are as follows: 

( 1 ) On the whole, it is protecting a 
class of people which need no encourage- 
ment to apply for positions. (2) These 
individuals, not being chosen by the heads 



of departments and not serving at their 
pleasure, are uncongenial and annoying, 
in many instances undermining the real 
efficiency of administration. (3) Trials 
to oust them are odious and expensive. 
(4) A lot of the unskilled help in our 
institutions two years ago, when the civil 
service law went into effect, was well ad- 
vanced in age. It must logically follow 
that we must at once institute a pension 
system for the end of the usefulness of 
many to the state is rapidly approaching. 
Many forward-looking states, standing 
high in the control of their penal and 
charitable institutions especially, have no 
demand for a civil service law. In other 
states where there are such laws we find 
very common criticism of the lack of flexi- 
bility. The modern and ideal civil ser- 
vice commissions, as advocated by their 
ardent enthusiasts in the United States to- 
day, are modern oligarchies. 

"When our Governor, commissioners 
and boards observe in practice the spirit 
of civil service, it will trickle through to 
the heads of our departments." 



Miles C. Riley, head of the Public 
Law Drafting Service, John B. Stevens, 
assistant chief examiner of the Wisconsin 
Civil Service Commission, and Edward 
A. Fitzpatrick, director of the Society for 
the Promotion of Training for Public 
Service, have just been constituted a com- 
mittee of the Society to draft a practica- 
ble civil service law. A draft of the law 
will be printed in The Public Servant in 
May or June. 



John A. Hazelwood, Secretary of the 
Wisconsin Civil Service Commission, will 
edit the column on Civil Service News be- 
ginning in the next number of The Public 
Servant. The cooperation of other com- 
missions is earnestly requested. 



**A Virchow or a Brissaud may oc- 
cupy a chair at a minor institution; and 
some skillful hacks or brilliant charlatans 
may have lodged themselves in the dis- 
tinguished homes of learning.** Dean 
Wigmore, in President's Report of Amer- 
ican Association of University Professors. 



1916-17] Chicago Takes Leadership .' 135 



Chicago Takes Leadership! 

The Chicago Board of Education deserves 
congratulations) for its remarkable first step in 
the high school preparation for public service. 
It has adopted the resolution quoted below. 
We congratulate you, Gentlemen of the Chicago 
Board of Education, on this admirable step and 
trust that your leadership in so important a 
movement may continue. Now that you have 
been the first to take definite action many others 
who have been considering the step will be 
stimulated to actually take it. Congratulations, 
once more. 



"RESOLVED, That a Junior College for 
Commercial Instruction be opened at the 
Medill High School beginning September, 
1917, and that graduates from four year 
courses of any high school be permitted to 
qualify for admission; that authority be 
given to employ or transfer such teachers as 
will be fitted to instruct in such classes; that 
the Superintendent of Schools formulate a 
suitable course of study, including prepara- 
tion for public service, recommend text- 
books, equipment, etc., for use in this course; 
that frequent talks by business men, and 
laboratory work in connection with real busi- 
ness be incorporated in this course." 



136 The Public Servant Dec-Jan. 



American Association of University Professors 

The American Association of University Professors is the youngest and the most 
vital association of university professors in the United; States. Up to date it has 
initiated more and achieved more than any general or special group of university pro- 
fessors or presidents in a decade. 

More power to you! 

More courage to you ! 

More influence to you! 

We confess that our slight contact with universities! and university professors has 
given us a very distinct impression that "timid" exactly describes their attitude toward 
the contemporary social problems and the universities' duty toward these problems. 
Wendell Phillips' fine phrase, "recreant scholarship" is still applicable. The spirit of 
the quotation from Seymour Deming's, A Pillar of Fire, on the cover of this number of 
The Public Servant is true of many universities and is particularly true of at least one 
university that has a national and an international reputation of being "very progres- 
sive." • 

Even this spirit of timidity finds expression in the American Association of Univer- 
sity Professors, but fortunately is sternly rebuked, Dean Wigmore in his report as 
President says: 

"But the Council must govern; i. e. it must not abdicate its powers and defer to the 
membership at large by referendum. Such an abdication was once or twice proposed 
during the year, much to the disappointment of the President. The referendum is the 
easy escape of a timid popular officer from responsibility. It is the last knell of repre- 
sentative government. To find it seriously proposed in a body of super-educated 
Americans was a! shock to your President. It leads to incompetent decisions and 
nerveless direction. May it never again be thought of in this Association!" 

But the Association itself can speak clearly and bravely not merely on subjects af- 
fecting "the conditions of their employment, or rather service," but on questions of 
large social import. The Association has a committee on the relations of universities 
and government which has just submitted a preliminary report on the national university 
proposition. Even though it is a distinctly valuable contribution to the subject, we 
look to an even better final report. Even though we are not in agreement with the re- 
port itself, it has so many good things in it in which we are all interested that we gladly 
print it complete. With Dean Schneider's letter attached we agree fully and heartily — 
Also with Professor Adams: 

And again, American Association of University Professors: 

More power to you! 

More courage to you ! 

More influence to you! 

Preliminary Report of Committee K federal, State or local, and the means 
Regarding ^Proposed National by which ^ various grade$ of goyern _ 

. . ment can best promote university educa- 

The field assigned to Committee K is a [ion [We „ said _ The p ub]ic Ser . 



broad one, having to do with the general 



vant] 



relations of the universities to the govern- T .i j . L 

_ mm -. • - , It has seemed to your committee, how- 

ment Presumably it was intended ever that for the jmmediate t ^ 

that this committee should consider most important topic jt couU cons|der was 

both the means by which universities that of the proposed national university . 

can better contribute to train men Bills for the creation of such a university 

for the government service, whether have been introduced in Congress from 

* Bold face type ours. 



American Association of University Professors 



1916-17] 

time to time for a century. The bill 
which is now pending, known as the Foss 
bill, is being pushed quite vigorously. It 
is obviously appropriate that the Associa- 
tion of University Professors should ex- 
ercise a due measure of influence with 
legard to any legislation of this character. 

Your committee was appointed only a 
few months ago and, on account of the 
intervening summer vacation, it has been 
able to give less attention to this subject 
thus far than it deserves. The present 
report is preliminary only. It is hoped 
that further correspondence and confer- 
ence may result in agreement, at least on 
the part of a large majority of the com- 
mittee, as to the main points at issue. 

It is perfectly clear that a majority of 
your committee is opposed to the Foss bill 
in its present form and the inquiries of 
the members of the committee indicate 
that the same is true of a majority of the 
professors in the leading institutions of 
the country. Two members of the com- 
mittee are definitely, one of them very 
strongly, in favor of that bill and two 
others express themselves as in favor of 
some sort of a national university. 

The majority of the committee be- 
lieve that there is no need of a na- 
tional institution which either paral- 
lels and competes with existing uni- 
versities or seeks to transcend them 
and become culminating point in the 
higher education of the country. 
[Amen. — The Public Servant.] While 
it is recognized that our universities are 
not yet fully meeting the needs' for ad- 
vanced instruction and research, it is felt 
that the greatest progress lies in the di- 
rection of strengthening the state and 
private institutions rather than in estab- 
lishing a national university. It is be- 
lieved that a national university would 
tend to check the development of other 
institutions. It almost inevitably would 
seek to dominate the educational situa- 
tion and the healthy rivalry among 
numerous institutions of approximately 
equal rank, which now contributes to 
progress, would be lessened. It is feared 



137 



also that a national university would not 
altogether escape the danger of political 
interference, or of that formalism and 
rigidity which is more or less character- 
istic of the federal service. 

On the other hand, the members of 
the committee who take this position agree 
with those who who directly favor a na- 
tional university in believing that steps 
should be taken to render more available 
to the progress of education and research 
the great facilities which the federal gov- 
ernment possesses. The libraries, arch- 
ives, museums and laboratories at Wash- 
ington are already serving as a great aid 
to the advancement of science. The 
government itself through various bureaus 
and offices is directly conducting re- 
searches in many fields. Moreover, its 
facilities are frequently utilized by stu- 
dents not in the government service. At 
the same time your committee believes 
that they are less used than they should 
be. 

Your committee has not yet been able 
to reach any definite conclusion as to the 
best methods of making these facilities 
more available, whether through some 
new formal organization or through other 
simpler methods. We propose to dis- 
cuss the subject in a later report. 

Certain members of the committee 
have already suggested more or less defi- 
nite plans looking to this end. For in- 
stance, it is suggested that there should 
be employed, in connection with each 
branch of the government which pos- 
sesses valuable facilities for the use of 
students, one or more competent men to 
act as guides and aids to those desiring 
to use such facilities and that this group 
should be more or less formally organ- 
ized into an institution. These men 
might, of course, include those already 
employed by the government to conduct 
the functions which the government now 
conducts, or they might be special per- 
sons whose sole or principal duty was 
thus to aid in the use of the government's 
facilities for research. 

Certain members of the committee 



38 



The Public Servant 



Dec-Jan. 



have also suggested ways in which the 
government, apart from rendering its ex- 
isting facilities for research more avail- 
able, might contribute to advanced edu- 
cation without creating a university in 
the ordinary sense of the term. 

Thus it has been suggested that the 
government might establish a bureau or 
institution to serve as a clearing house for 
the exchange of information between 
existing universities and to promote co- 
operation among them. The majority 
of your committee is distinctly opposed 
to any federal control over institutions of 
higher education, but this does not pre- 
clude some assistance to them in mutual 
co-operation. It is very generally rec- 
ognized that there is considerable need- 
less multiplication of facilities for ad- 
vanced study and research. It is not 
wise that every university should under- 
take to offer courses of study or facilities 
for investigation in every advanced 
branch of science. A certain measure of 
specialization has already been brought 
about, but a larger measure would doubt- 
less beneficial. Again, it not infre- 
quently happens that two or more men 
in different parts of the country are need- 
lessly working upon some single problem 
of research, such duplication resulting 
from lack of knowledge as to what is 
being done. 

Whether that increase in co-operation 
among our universities which is obviously 
desirable can best be accomplished 
through action of the federal government 
or without such action is still a moot ques- 
tion with your committee. 

One interesting suggestion which has 
been made to your committee is that the 
federal government should establish a 
more or less informal institution at Wash- 
ington, at which distinguished scholars 
from this and other countries should de- 
liver series of lectures from time to time. 
The thought is not that systematic courses 
of instruction should be provided covering 
fully any or all branches of science. It 
is rather that an opportunity should be af- 
forded by which advanced students can 
with as little difficulty as possible come in 



contact with the leading investigators and 
teachers in their respective fields. In Ger- 
many, for example, this object is largely 
secured by the migration of students from 
one university to another. The greater 
distances in this country, as well as the 
fact that most universities do not encour- 
age students who expect to take their de- 
grees with them to visit other institutions 
for temporary study, render it more diffi- 
cult for students here to come in contact 
with the men outside the particular insti- 
tution in which they are matriculated. 

No doubt it is desirable either that 
some means should be devised for encour- 
aging the temporary migration of students 
from one university to another, or that 
there should be some central place at 
which advanced students can, within a 
short period of time, hear the lectures and 
obtain the aid of a number of leading men 
in their respective fields. Those of the 
committee who favor the latter plan do 
not desire a formally organized national 
university. The lecturers whom the 
students would go to Washington to hear 
would not be permanent professors 
of a national institution; they would 
for the most part be professors in uni- 
versities in this country or abroad and 
would come to Washington only tempo- 
rarily or at intervals. It is suggested in 
particular that it would be easier for the 
United States to secure the advantage of 
contact with leading investigators and 
teachers of foreign countries through such 
a system than through the practice of in- 
viting such men to give courses in the ex- 
isting universities. While a number of 
very distinguished scholars have in recent 
years been brought to our universities from 
abroad to give such courses, there has 
been no systematic arrangement for doing 
this on a large scale or for securing ade- 
quate representation in all different 
branches of science. 

Several members of the committee 
believe further that the federal gov- 
ernment should establish an institu- 
tion of its own for the training- of 
persons to enter the government ser- 
vice in certain branches; or, [Why 



1916-17] 



American Association of University Professors 



139 



not 'and?' — Public Servant.] else that 
there should be concerted effort 
among existing institutions to afford 
better training for participation in 
such branches of the government 
service. 

To the minds of a majority of your 
committee there is little need for new fa- 
cilities for training men to enter those 
bureaus and offices of the federal govern- 
ment which are chiefly concerned with 
research in natural science, such as the 
Geological Survey, the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution, the Bureau of Standards, the 
Coast and Geodetic Survey or the scien- 
tific bureaus of the Department of Agri- 
culture. Various private employments as 
well as the universities demand many men 
with substantially the same fundamental 
training as is required for service in these 
scientific branches of government work. 
Consequently existing institutions already 
furnish reasonably adequate facilities for 
the training of such men. 

Chief interest attaches to the sub- 
ject of training of men for govern- 
ment work of an economic, sociologi- 
cal or administrative character. 
There is frequent complaint that the 
intermediate and higher employees 
and officials in those departments of 
federal, state and local government 
which have to do with administra- 
tive functions — with such matters as 
finance, commerce, industry and sta- 
tistics — are not adequately trained. 
The question may be raised whether, 
so far as this is the case, it is due to 
the lack of facilities for training men 
for such service or due to the inabil- 
ity of trained men to get the jobs. 
At least part of the difficulty is no 
doubt of a political character. Ap- 
pointing officers do not always try to 
get the best trained men ; party con- 
siderations and personal favoritism 
often have too much influence. More- 
over, the conditions of the govern- 
ment service are in many cases not 
sufficiently attractive, as regards per- 
manence of tenure, opportunity for 
promotion, or rate of compensation, 



to induce well-trained men to enter 
the service. 

A rather detailed study of the condi- 
tions of government service should be 
made and should be cooperated in by all 
agencies interested in training for public 
service, namely, The American Associa- 
tion of University Professors, the Ameri- 
can Political Science Association, the 
National Municipal League, the Ameri- 
can Economic Association, the Associa- 
tion of Urban Universities, and the 
special professional associations such as 
the American Public Health Association, 
the National Association of Comptrollers 
and Accounting Officers, and the like. 
Naturally in such a movement we should 
be glad indeed to cooperate. Perhaps at 
another time we shall outline in more de- 
tail what we hope for such an investiga- 
tion. Any or all of these agencies 
might urge a more intelligent and a more 
detailed study of public service in our 
national census reports. We have al- 
ready taken up the proposition with Sec- 
retary Redfield, and he is sympathetic. 
Perhaps now that the Rockefeller Foun- 
dation has utilized its funds for govern- 
mental research it may be willing to con- 
tribute to such a cooperative study. Per- 
haps the study the Bureau of Municipal 
Research is making for the Rockefeller 
Foundation on " Standardization and 
Practices Evolved for the Improvement of 
the Civil Service" may be helpful. In 
any case no study, we hope } will fail to 
include within its scope the extensive field 
of quasi-public work as offering a motive 
for training for public service and a field 
where trained men may be utilized in a 
transitional period. — The Public Servant. 

It is felt by some, however, that part of 
the difficulty lies in the fact that few posi- 
tions outside the government service re- 
quire the same sort of training as is re- 
quired for work in the specified branches 
of government, and that therefore suffi- 
ciently specialized facilities for such train- 
ing do not exist. 

Your committee proposes further 
to consider this subject of training 
for government service. There is, 



140 



The Public Servant 



Dec— Jan. 



however, less need for action on the 
part of this Association, because cer- 
tain more specialized organizations 
are already giving careful study to 
the subject. A special Society for 
the Promotion of Training for Pub- 
lic Service has recently been organ- 
ized. The American Economic As- 
sociation and American Political Sci- 
ence Association have committees for 
considering the same subject. 

Clad to be noticed. 

But seriously, Members of the Com- 
mittee, is there less need for action on 
the part of your Association? We 
think not A specialized organization 
such as ours can be most effective when 
cooperating with men inside the universi- 
ties who are to plan and to do the work- 
We would welcome the opportunity to be 
of service to you. We shall place un- 
reservedly at your command our infor- 
mation and our service. We should pre- 
fer to do this through the American As- 
sociation of University Professors rather 
than through any other association, and 
for this reason. Most associations which 
college professors dominate have two 
characteristics, an annual meeting and a 
periodical. The principal advantage of 
the annual meeting is to renew acquaint- 
ances and to get a new job or prepare 
the way for a new job, i. e., it is a high 
class employment agency. The periodi- 
cal is edited by the "inner clique", and 
professors write papers for other profess- 
ors' consumption. But the American 
Association of University Professors is a 
real organization and proposes to do defi- 
nite things. Dean Wigmore, in his re- 
port as President of the Association, says, 
under the head, "The Activities of the 
Committees": 

"Moreover, this work does not consist 
merely in listening to exegetic papers and 
inspiring addresses, nor in exchanging in- 
effectual opinions. In short, it is legis- 



lative work. If this Association prepares 
and completes its tasks properly, its final 
resolutions will always be in the nature of 
practicable solutions of actual problems. 
And these solutions, sanctioned by the 
entire body of its annual meeting, will he 
carried back to the individual institutions 
as virtual pronouncements of national pro- 
fessional opinion, and will compel adop- 
tion and observance, so far as local con- 
ditions permit." — The Public Servant- 
Trie majority of the committee is able 
at the present time to agree on recommend- 
ing that the American Association of Uni- 
versity Professors adopt the following 
resolutions : 

Resolved, That it is the sense of this 
Association that it is not desirable that the 
bill entitled, "A Bill to Create a Na- 
tional University at the Seat of the Fed- 
eral Government," known as the Foss bill, 
now pending before Congress, should be 
adopted; and 

Resolved, That it is not desirable that 
any federal institution bearing the name 
"university" should be established wheth- 
er it grants degrees or not, and that it is 
not desirable that any federal institution 
of whatever name should be established 
which grants academic degrees; and 

Resolved, That it is desirable that 
greater use for research should be made 
of the libraries, archives, museums, labor- 
atories and other facilities of the federal 
government, and that the government and 
all organizations interested in the promo- 
tion of scientific research should give 
careful study to the means of securing this 
object. 

Appended are the letters of Dean Her- 
man Schneider (Engineering) of the Uni- 
versity of Cincinnati, and of Professor 
E. D. Adams (History) of Stanford 
University, the two members of the com- 
mittee who most strongly favor a national 
university. 



Respectfully submitted, 
E. Dana Durand, Chairman E. D. Adams 

(Statistics, University of Minnesota). (History, Stanford University)- 



1916-17] 



American Association of University Professon 



141 



W. C. Bagley 
(Education, University of Illinois). 

L. R. Jones 
(Agriculture, University of Wisconsin). 

W. A. Locy 
(Zoology, Northwestern University). 

E. L. Nichols 
(Physics, Cornell University). 

Charles Palache 
(Geology, Harvard University). 

(Why not have a professor of political 
science like Beard of Columbia, or 
Haines of Texas, or Barnett of Oregon, 
or Smith of Washington, and a professor 
of sociology like Ross of Wisconsin or 
Branson of North Carolina, all of whom 
are genuinely interested and informed on 
the subject? The • natural sciences, 

Dean Schneider's Letter 

Cincinnati, Ohio, 

October 19, 1916. 
Dear Dr. Durand: 

This letter is in reply to yours of Oc- 
tober 3, 1916, concerning a national 
university. Permit me to answer your 
questions as follows: 

1". In your judgment is a national uni- 
versity of any sort desirable? 

Yes. 

2. What are the principal reasons for 
your attitude? 

(a) The largest and most complex 
piece of business in the United States is 
the government of the United States. 
The efficient and economical operation of 
any business requires trained experts. 
Hence, I believe that the government 
should train for its civil business, as it 
does for its military business. The train- 
ing ground should be where most of the 
business is transacted — at Washington. 
The training ought to be in conjunction 
with the business, as in the co-operative 
courses in engineering at Cincinnati. I 
am a firm believer in the idea of training 
a man for the practice of anything by 
placing him where that thing is practiced. 

(b) The City of Washington has a 
great many museums and libraries and 
will get more from time to time. It is 



M. P. Ravenel 

(Medicine, University of Missouri). 

Herman Schneider 
(Engineering, University of Cincinnati), 

A. G. Webster 
(Physics, Clark University)* 

S. W. WlLLISTON 
(Paleontology, University of Chicago). 



where the problem is comparatively sim- 
ple, are well represented in numbers on 
the Committee, but the social sciences, 
where the problem is difficult, are not 
adequately represented in numbers — even 
though ably represented. — The Public 
Servant) . 



bound to become a center of intellectual 
activities of the broadest character. In 
the future it will offer more facilities for 
graduate work of all kinds than any other 
city in the United States. I believe that 
an engineering college should be in an in- 
dustrial center and an agricultural college 
in the midst of farms; for like reasons I 
believe a great research institution should 
be placed at Washington. 

(c) I believe that the National Uni- 
versity would attract a great many gradu- 
ate students who are not now attracted by 
other institutions. I have heard as an ar- 
gument against a national university that 
the present graduate institutions are under- 
manned. IF THE FEW GRADU- 
ATE SCHOOLS WE HAVE CAN- 
NOT ATTRACT A SUFFICIENT 
NUMBER OF ABLE GRADUATE 
STUDENTS, THEN I BELIEVE 
WE HAVE AN ARGUMENT FOR 
A NEW TYPE OF GRADUATE 
INSTITUTION AT WASHING- 
TON, RATHER THAN ONE 
AGAINST IT. We have a nation of 
one hundred million people with tremen- 
dous resources and an amazing quantity 
of complex problems to be met. Any 
one familiar with the character of the 
problems and the kind of training needed 
for their correct solution will quickly sense 
the danger of having but a relatively small 



42 



The Public Servant 



Dec— Jan. 



number of persons doing real graduate 
work. 

(d) I believe there is a positive need 
for a graduate institution which will not 
give undergraduate work. A graduate 
institution which does no other work would 
have a more definite organization than 
the usual graduate college which is part 
of an institution essentially undergraduate. 
Frequently the graduate work is given the 
left-over hours of teachers overloaded 
with undergraduate work. Then, too, 
some administrators of universities hold, as 
standards of success, values which neces- 
sarily could not foster real graduate work 
in their institutions. A graduate school 
at Washington, organized to do graduate 
work solely, would not be burdened by 
any of these handicaps. 

(e) Commerce and science have made 
international intercourse. International 
commerce has created many of the causes 
of war, and the physical sciences have 
made war frightful. The answer to 
Weltpolitik must be found through an in- 
ternational intercourse stimulated to still 
greater intimacy by the physical sciences, 
but broadened in feeling and vision by 
(may I say it?) the science of the hu- 
manities. At the dawn of civilization, 
every man was against every other 
man, then family against family, then 
clan against clan, then tribe against 
tribe, then state against state, then 
nation against nation, and now groups of 
nations against groups of nations. The 
mind of man has evolved slowly but 
surely toward a world-wide co-operation- 
Commerce and science have done this. 
An important but frequently overlooked 
factor in this evolution has been the ex- 
change of that common commodity , 
knowledge, between the deepest searchers 
after knowledge. There is danger that 
this exchange will lag, unless a vigorous 
stimulus is given to it by this nation. To 
organize a strong national university, mo- 
tived for the good of the people of the 
whole world, seems to me the duty and 
the opportunity of the greatest and richest 
neutral nation. 



3. If you favor such a university, what 
is your general idea of its proper func- 
tions and its relation to the educational 
system of the country and to the govern- 
ment service? 

(a) Its function should be to carry on 
any post-graduate work in science and in 
the humanities, to train specifically for 
professional positions in the public service, 
and to undertake advisory work of an ad- 
vanced character for any of the depart- 
ments of the government. . Research "work 
would be emphasized; there would be 
few lectures and recitations. 

(b) It should have no relation what- 
soever to the educational system of the 
country, assuming the country has an edu- 
cational system. Unquestionably, how- 
ever, its influence- would be felt on the 
educational work of the country in due 
time, and it is possible there would de- 
velop later an educational system of the 
United States. 

(c) / believe in specific training of a 
post-graduate character for the more im- 
portant civil places in activities distinctly 
peculiar to government. The scheme 
should contemplate training in practice in 
the government service and training in 
theory in the national university. 

Very truly yours, 
(Signed) HERMAN SCHNEIDER, 

Dean, College of Engineering. 



Professor Adams' Letter 

Stanford University, California. 
October 10, 1916. 

My Dear Mr. Durand: 

Pressure of University duties has de- 
layed a reply to your inquiries in the 
matter of a national university, but I have 
at last finished a study of the various 
papers and hearings. Following the 
suggestion in your letter of October 3, 
that, for the present, what is needed is a 
reply from each member of the committee 
on the basic questions of the whole matter, 
I now attempt a specific answer. 

You ask: 



1916-17] 



American Association of University Professors 



143 



"1. In your judgment is a national 
university of any sort desirable?" 

Yes. 

"2. What are the principal reasons for 
your attitude?" 

My belief that a great improvement 
could be effected in the various fields of 
government service by the establishment of 
a "national service university," with a 
definite physical existence and a corps of 
expert teachers. Also, my conviction, 
derived from a recent investigation, as a 
member of another committee, into the 
methods of improving one branch of that 
service (the consular and diplomatic), 
that existing universities cannot adequately 
train men for it, without an expense 
wholly disproportionate to the opportuni- 
ties for employment. A similar situation 
exists in all departments of government 
service. 

E. g., in the consular service there are 
not twenty-five new appointments a year. 
// is foolish expenditure of money by ex- 
isting universities to offer training for this 
limited field, yet at least ten universities 
are now advertising such training; though 
it is mostly inadequate. They thereby 
sin against governmental efficiency and 
educational ethics alike, by pretending to 
prepare young men for a field in which 
there is but a limited opening.) 

Attached to this national service uni- 
versity I would have an organization for 
opening to research students, not primarily 
interested in government service, the un- 
equaled materials at Washington in all 
fields of knowledge. 

Thus, the national university would 



perform two functions: first, training for 
an improved government service; second, 
offering facilities for graduate students, or 
others, interested in research. 

"3. If you favor such a university, 
what is your general idea of its proper 
functions and its relation to the educa- 
tional system of the country and to the 
government service?" 

The answers to question 2 will, in 
part, serve for this also. In addition, I 
am not at all impressed by all those theo- 
retical arguments about "nationalizing" 
higher education, making it the "crown of 
our system, 19 etc. The arguments for 
"diversity 1 * and "competition* seem to me 
to have much merit. Also, I think the 
present bill so evidently seeks to place 
control in the hands of the state universi- 
ties (or rather of their presidents) as to 
be objectionable. Not only is the ma- 
chinery of administration cumbersome, 
but it would place ultimate control of 
policy in the hands of the men most likely, 
because of their positions, to look at mat- 
ters from a state, rather than from a na- 
tional, interest. 

My opinion is that there are two gen- 
erally accepted conditions: first, that the 
government service needs improvement by 
better training; second, that there exists at 
Washington, in many branches of knowl- 
edge, unusual opportunity for research, 
but at present little facility. These con- 
ditions should determine and limit the 
character and functions of the University- 
Very truly yours, 
(Signed) E. D. ADAMS. 

Reprinted from December Bulletin of American 
Association of University Professors. 



Our University Council 

President William T. Foster of Reed 
College has just accepted the chairman- 
ship of the University Council of the So- 
ciety for the Promotion of Training for 
Public Service. Among its members are 
Professors Beard of Columbia, Haines of 
Texas, Hunt of Southern California, 



King of Pennsylvnia and Ross of Wis- 
consin. The function of this council will 
be to keep us informed of forward steps 
taken in the universities and to express the 
university point of view on the problems 
of training for public service as they are 
presented to us. 



144 The Public Servant Dec-Jan. 

Our Vital Problems 

JAMES H. BAKER, President University of Colorado, 1892-1913 

THE most vital problems are those revealed by the war. We are 
beginning to understand, as never before the fundamental ques- 
tions of our civilization. These, as they appear to me, are expressed 
in the following brief statements. 

1 . Efficiency in a democracy. We can make wise laws, but fail 
in administration. The movement for co-operation between the uni- 
versities and municipalities and various organizations for social welfare 
in training men in the universities and in the field for public service is 
most significant, and represents the idea that ultimately will correct the 
essential weakness of democratic government. The best illustration is 
the new conception of municipal government — a commission whose 
duty shall be to represent the people under the general laws, to inaug- 
urate policies, and to employ for administrative purposes trained ex- 
perts in every department. This means efficiency under democratic 
control. 

2. Securing cooperation between government and the various agen- 
cies of material growth and social progress. The aim would be wise 
legislation, a better understanding between labor and capital, economy 
in industry — taking stock of the resources of the nation, and organizing 
them, not only in the way of preparedness, but for vital constructive 
work. 

3. Development in the schools of the habits, ideas and sentiments 
necessary to national unity, but consistent with individual freedom. 

4. A national university, as the instrument of democracy to realize 
its highest possibilities, material and spiritual. Such an institution 
would lead in industrial and social research and would coordinate re- 
search in all the universities of the country. It would study problems 
of government and administration, educational sociology, and the 
means of promoting American art, architecture and literature. It 
would represent American ideals in ways impossible for a political con- 
gress — permanent peace of the nations based on justice, a larger coop- 
erative spirit at home, the efficiency of the best autocratic government, 
but based on democratic principles, and subject to the popular will. — 
National Economic League Quarterly. 



916-17] 



The National University 



145 



The National University 

From "The Guide Post" 



A National University 

Should Congress found a national uni- 
versity at Washington? A bill planning 
such an institution is now pending in the 
House. Other attempts, some of them 
dating back a century, have been made 
to create a federal university, but all have 
failed. The Foss bill appears, however, 
to have so much backing that the Ameri- 
can Association of University Professors 
of the country has begun to take notice. 

So far the professors are not wholly 
certain about their proper attitude in the 
matter. Tentatively a committee of the 
association decided to oppose the Foss 
bill. But others of them liked the 
thought of a national university. While 
the doctors disagree, the plain people 
often find it desirable to reach a practical 
solution. So it may easily happen that 
we shall have a University of America 
before the learned men settle the advan- 
tages and disadvantages of the proposal 
among themselves. 

The idea of a national university is 
attractive. Since Jefferson, in this coun- 
try the belief that public education must 
be the basis of a democracy has been cur- 
rent. We have public schools adminis- 
tered by districts and high schools sup- 
ported by counties. We have colleges 
and universities managed by states. 
What is inherently wrong with a univer- 
sity founded and maintained by the 
United States? 

The Need of the Expert 

The big job confronting this country is 
to invent some safe means of using the 
skill of experts in behalf of all the people, 
according to so wise a citizen as George 
Herbert Mead of the University of Chi- 
cago. That is the essential problem 
wrapped up in many of our governmental 
conflicts. 

That is the heart of the Chicago public 



Conducted hy William L. Chenery 

school warfare. At the present time the 
community lacks the machinery for put- 
ting its competent experts to work in the 
schools. That, likewise, is the difficulty 
of the crime evil. This city, after the 
fashion of other municipalities, employs 
amateur weapons in its warfare on crime. 
The problem grows because we fail to 
use the devices made available by science. 

The health problem is another illustra- 
tion. If Chicago or any other city would 
take the advice of the best qualified pub- 
lic health men, disease and death could be 
reduced to a fractional part of their pres- 
ent exactions. All these are familiar ex- 
amples. There is no department of na- 
tional life, either in peace or war, which 
could not be bettered if the services of 
scientists could be made available. 

The benefits are direct and indirect. 
An astronomer is solving England's ni- 
trate problem and mathematicians are 
planning the battles. In a voluntary 
manner an attempt is now being made to 
mobilize the scientists of America for use 
in possible wars. Would not a national 
university be the best centralizing agency? 



Education for Government 

Among the most important chores sug- 
gested for the proposed university is the 
training of men for government employ- 
ment. This would render it a natural 
adjunct of the civil service system. 

The chemists and biologists and engi- 
neers employed by the federal govern- 
ment obtain their training in the universi- 
ties. But the men and women engaged 
in other branches of service have to get 
their education at random. Many exist- 
ing colleges attempt to train public ser- 
vants, but, as one of the professorial ad- 
vocates of a national university points out, 
the work necessarily is done superficially. 

There can be no doubt that the exist- 
ence of a national university which, among 



46 



The Public Servant 



Dec— Jan. 



other things, trained citizens for public 
service would improve the quality of the 
work done by government employes. 
The location of such an institution at 
Washington would stimulate civil ser- 
vants. Government jobs might in time 
become a new profession in which ad- 
vancement was earned by growing effi- 
ciency rather than by political support. 

A Center of Research 

One of the greatest advantages of a 
national university would be the opening 
of the resources of existing governmental 
laboratories to the scientists of the coun- 
try. Although the departments have 
splendid research equipment at Washing- 
ton, it is said experts find difficulty in 
availing themselves of the opportunity. 

Another task suggested for a national 
university is the assemblage of great schol- 
ars and scientists of this country and of 
other nations temporarily employed for 
special lecture courses. The National 
University, with its greater dignity and re- 



sources, could do things impossible for a 
state or a private institution. The teach- 
ers of the nation would then naturally mi- 
grate to Washington for that additional 
training under the famous men sought be- 
fore the war in Europe. 

The objections to a national university 
are the disadvantages of all governmental 
projects. They are summed up in the 
fear of politics. There is the dread, too, 
that a national university might attempt 
to secure control over the educational 
policies of the nation and thereby strike a 
serious blow at the freedom of thought in 
the country. 

The memory of the Scott Nearing epi- 
sode at the University of Pennsylvania, 
albeit, will continue to deter many Ameri- 
cans from regarding the private universi- 
ties as the temples of untrammeled liberty. 
A national university could hardly be less 
tolerant than many of the institutions en- 
tirely separated from the political will of 
the people. — Chicago Herald, Dec, 31, 
1916. 



Reed College in Politics 

It is usually contended that a college 
should keep out of politics. If we mean 
by keeping out of politics, keeping the 
college as such from a partisan campaign 
for certain men or certain measures, there 
can be little doubt of the wisdom of the 
policy. But, traditionally keeping out 
of politics has meant an aloofness from 
the immediately practical issues of party 
politics which has prevented colleges 
from exerting the influence for good gov- 
ernment, in connection with elections, 
which it is entirely possible for colleges to 
exert on a non-partisan basis. The very 
term "academic" has come to mean "im- 
practical", and the title of "professor" 
applied to a man in political life is intend- 
ed to imply his necessary inability to 
grapple with actual conditions. Simi- 
larly, the term "highbrow" is often ap- 
plied in derision to teachers and students 
who, within academic walls, propound 
theories in high sounding language, with 
no apparent sense of responsibility for 
making connections with the outside 
world. 



Reed College, during the six weeks 
preceding the recent election, endeavored 
to promote good citizenship by venturing 
beyond its campus to every section of the 
city of Portland to carry to voters timely, 
accurate, and non-partisan information 
concerning the measures to be voted on in 
the election, and thus to encourage voters 
to do more thinking, more discussing, and 
more voting. 

Six members of the Reed College fac- 
ulty and seventeen members of the student 
body conducted Good Citizenship Meet- 
ings at sixty different places. The meet- 
ings were held in schools, churches, li- 
braries, and club houses. The attend- 
ance ranged from nine to three hundred, 
the total attendance for the sixty meetings 
having been 4030. At each meeting two 
or three speakers, usually representing 
both faculty and students, presented the 
main arguments in favor of, and the main 
arguments opposed to, each of the eleven 
measures proposed by initiative petition or 
referred to the people by the legislative 
assembly. The attempt was made to 
present with absolute fairness the most im- 



1916-17] 



A Federal Hydro-Electric College 



147 



A Federal Hydro-Electric College 

WlLLIAM Thum, Pasadena, California 



Blundering Republic 

The training in efficiency by the great 
war, according to Mr. Pinchot, is literally 
shooting Europe ahead of us in the mat- 
ter of organization. If we do not attend 
to this matter in our own country promptly 
and efficiently we may become known as 
the "Big Blundering Republic" and be 
made to fare accordingly. 

Our Needs 

What we need in water-power legisla- 
tion* is a bill permitting the United States, 
as a whole, the several states, ajid our 
cities, to purchase any of these water- 
power plants at any time after, say, fif- 
teen years, at a liberal price, the cost to be 
determined by methods adequately stated 
in the bill itself, even though it might re- 
quire an extra year to prepare such a bill. 
It is our own fault, that as a nation we 
are not yet generally prepared to build 
and operate public hydro-electric plants, 
and we ought to be willing to pay well, 
but not excessively, men who have the 
ability and the financial courage to do it 
for us, pending the time of our prepara- 
tion. This bill should provide that the 
public shall not be required under any 
circumstances to pay anything for the 
power-rights when it purchases the plants. 

Another thing the bill should provide 
for within the fifteen years is a great Fed- 
eral Hydro-Electric College having as 
part of its equipment several of the very 
largest power plants in actual commercial 
service, an institution where students can 



earn their way while acquiring complete 
practical and theoretical training, making 
of the school an Industrial "West Point." 
In this college the managers and heads of 
departments would be developed for the 
operation of the necessarily increasing num- 
ber of public power plants. Within 
twenty-five years this college should be ex- 
tended to include railroading. In this 
way only can public operation of power 
plants and railroads be the success they 
should be. 

Experienced Business Men Say 

Public ownership of water-power is a 
condition indispensable to the highest in- 
dustrial organization and efficiency. It is 
an essential preliminary to public owner- 
ship or to absoluate public control of rail- 
roads. Public ownership or control of 
railroads within twenty-five years or less 
is by many of our best informed business 
men, including well known bankers and 
railroad officials, regarded as a social, po- 
litical and industrial necessity and an in- 
dispensable feature of military prepared- 
ness. In fact, successful public owner- 
ship of railroads would make preparedness 
a simpler matter. How important it is, 
then, that the electrical resources of this 
country should remain within reasonable 
reach of the public, electrical energy being 
the first consideration in future rail trans- 
portation and public ownership of rail- 
roads being the most fundamental element 
in a highly developed "industrial mobiliza- 
tion." — Out West Magazine. 



* Mr. Thum in the preceding part of his article pertinently criticized the Shields 
water power bill. 



portant reliable information bearing on 
each question. At each meeting efforts 
were made to stimulate further investiga- 
tion and discussion ; and it seems probable 
that indirectly the college reached in this 
way at least twenty thousand voters, or 
about one-fifth of the total vote cast in 
the county at the previous election. 

The student speakers were mainly ad- 
vanced students in the departments of 
Politics, Economics, Sociology* Argumen- 



tation, and Public Speaking. For them 
these efforts to promote good citizenship 
were valuable types of field work, com- 
parable to the laboratory work in the 
sciences, and to the field work for engi- 
neering students at Cincinnati, and to the 
case work of students of Social Econom- 
ics conducted at New York, Chicago, 
Boston, and elsewhere. — From a cor- 
respondent. 



148 



The Public Servant 



Dec— Jan. 



^A^hat is the Best Training for Public Service* 

William H. Allen, 

Director Institute for Public Service, formerly director of the Training School for 

Public Service 



Specific experiences were cited by Wil- 
liam H. Allen of New York City, of men 
trained for public service via rendering 
public service, such as making budgets, 
inspecting foods, preparing exhibits, sur- 
veying schools, writing publicity matter, 
exposing frauds, or waste and installing 
correctives. The speaker's conclusions 
were in part as follows: 

"That this training via work needing to 
be done was immediately useful is testi- 
fied by Wisconsin and Ohio whose school 
surveys began new eras in education and 
by New York City which gained from 
its ocean beaches innumerable betterments 
and millions in savings. That the train- 
ing was permanently effective for students 
is attested by their notable contributions 
to Dayton, Akron, Milwaukee, Minne- 
apolis, Springfield, Detroit, Toronto, 
New York, Philadelphia, etc. 

"Community work that needs to be 
done is our greatest possible trainer for 
public service. The best that college in- 
structors can do is to keep student and 
important work in closest contact. In 
addition to all other preparation students 
must share in useful, urgently needed, 
hard community work with time limits 
and place limits. Its passing mark is 
correct not 70 per cent. Its pass word 
is usable not passable. It impartially 
exposes to the student and his preceptor 
both his strong and weak points, in time 
to correct the one and build on the other. 

"Community work needing to be done 
will always be plentiful and varied. Its 
results will always speak frankly about 
the student's capacity and effort. Doing 
it will always be a short cut to facts and 
principles. One month helping Pennsyl- 
vania make its state budget can be worth 
ten months of reading or listening about 



* Abstract of address delivered before 
versities and Public Service, Philadelphia, 



state budget making. Saving baby lives 
can teach more statistics than lectures 
about infant mortality. Finding high 
spots in Philadelphia schools will train 
better for school management or educa- 
tional research than will three years with 
Pestalozzi in Ph.D. incubators. 

"Systematic reading is valuable but 
not so valuable as systematic wanting, 
systematic seeing, systematic doing, and 
systematic thinking. Helping do the 
world's work and adjust the world's pub- 
lic service marvelously increases one's 
ability to absorb principles and informa- 
tion. 

"Learning seldom tests character, vi- 
tality, capacity, workmanship, sympathy, 
insight, vision. Work does test and 
answers frankly. The man worth fitting 
for public service will teach himself more 
than professors can teach him if he is 
given work assignments that make him 
want to know and to think straight. The 
first step, therefore, is to give a variety of 
short tasks which disclose to the student 
and his supervisors where he needs atten- 
tion. Every man desiring to be a leader 
and builder rather than a mere place 
holder should be tried at making field in- 
vestigations, writing results, analyzing 
official reports, preparing publicity, inter- 
viewing officers, securing civic cooperation, 
i. e. selling projects. His own mind must 
learn to stand alone with fact support re- 
gardless of where book authorities or 
"consensus of opinion" may stand. 

"Experience proves that it makes little 
difference what a man knows. Different 
stocks of information lead to similar re- 
sults. It makes all the difference in the 
world how one goes at a new problem. 
Meeting problems is the best way to train 
for meeting problems. 

The Third National Conference on Uni- 
Nov. 15, 1916. 



1916-17] 



What is the Best Training for Public Service? 



149 



"F. S. Staley of Minneapolis never 
went to high school or college and never 
took a course in economics, politics or so- 
ciology. He has nevertheless a group of 
principles and facts in these fields equalled 
by few college professors. He has 
wrought constructive results for Minne- 
apolis in such varied departments as 
health, accounting, police, hospitals, gar- 
bage disposal, school business, fire, parks, 



and social surveys. There is a reason 
and that reason is field experience that 
made him want to know, want to help, 
and want to use the scientific method of 
obtaining and using facts. 

"Field work will vitalize college in- 
struction by giving it time and purpose 
limits, and by harnessing to it the wonder- 
ful laboratory and motivation of the 
world's work." 



Vv ky do Men Leave the Public Service?* 

By Frederick P. Gruenberg, 
Director, Philadelphia Bureau of Municipal Research 

To one T. Jefferson, democrat, is gen- Of course many of those dismissed and 
erally ascribed the epigram, that of public of those that resigned are senile or other- 
office-holders "few die and none resign." wise unfitted for service, but even allow- 
This is only partially correct nowadays, ing a wide margin for error, the import- 
as we find that while but few die, a great ance of the probable "waste element" is 
many resign. Moreover, a great number apparent. 'Since government is becoming 
are dismissed from the public services. increasingly complicated and since there 
Some too, of course, go out of office be- is a growing recognition of the need of 
cause their terms expire. Leaving out of special training for government service, it 
consideration for the present, the last behooves us to turn our attention to the 
group 7 and those who relinquish public problem of saving such training as govern- 
jobs only when they die, saying "kismet", ment service affords, for government use. 
we have left those that resign and those For the purposes of the present brief 
that-'are fired. Both are largely prevent- discussion no consideration will be given 
able causes for separation and present the to that important part of our public ser- 
same problem — and that a serious one — vice — the school teachers, although very 
of conservation. similar conditions and problems are pres- 

To determine the relation of separa- ent in their case. Nor is there space here 

tions from the service due to resignations to dwell on an elaborate program of steps 

and dismissals to the total number of sep- necessary to ameliorate the present situ- 

arations, an inquiry was addressed re- ation. Numerous programs are being 

cently to a number of persons having ac- worked out and the problems are in able 

cess to authentic records. These includ- hands for solution. We shall here mere- 

ed carefully selected civil service officials, ly attempt to interpret the facts as they 

prominent administrators and civic work- are, and try to cite a few illuminating ex- 

ers spread all over the country. A tabu- amples. 

lation of their figures gives the following The conclusion is unavoidable that 

average percentages: large numbers of men and women are 

„ .. _ „ , ,. „ continually separating from the public 

Separations from Public Service • i v • , ,. , . . 

service, and it requires but little inquiry to 

Death 7.4% establish that such a situation is bad. The 

Expiration of term 1.1% experience of private enterprises has been 

Dismissal 24.5% that a too frequent "turnover" of person- 
Resignation 67. % nel is costly in every way. Those re- 

* A paper read at the Third National Conference on Universities and Public Ser- 
vice, Philadelphia, Nov. 16, 1916. 



150 



The Public Servant 



Dec— Jan. 



sponsible for large and small establish- 
ments, that have sufficient vision to under- 
stand the matter, are constantly striving to 
correct such defects in their organizations, 
as tend to increase the "turnover" and are 
endeavoring to introduce conditions that 
will make their employ attractive. 

In public service the loss of experienced 
workers, the costly processes of training 
new ones, and the general impairment of 
the official machinery by a high turnover 
is no less undesirable, and from the point 
of view of society is, of course, highly 
more important. 

The losses occasioned by dismissal for 
partisan or other unjustifiable reasons will 
eventually be checked by the wider ex- 
tension of civil service and more genuine 
application of its principles. The other 
side of the picture — the voluntary with- 
drawals — presents complications involv- 
ing social and economic factors. Civil 
service reform, as at present developed, is 
but partially concerned with this side of 
the situation, and "conservationists" are 
fully occupied with conserving resources 
other than personal. 

Much has been written on the whys 
and wherefores of the undesirability of 
making public service a life career and 
they resolve themselves principally down 
to these: 

Uncertainty of tenure 

Political atmosphere 

Poor compensation as compared with 
private enterprise 

Poor prospects for advancement 

Some have added "uninteresting work" 
to the above, but careful observation and 
wide inquiry have resulted in the convic- 
tion that job for job, man for man, the 
public service is at least as interesting as 
business or industry. It- has been said, 
too, that fame (admittedly a desidera- 
tum) is denied the public servant, but 
this is patently untrue for the higher posi- 
tions, at least, and if the opportunities for 
advancement in public service were equal 
to those in private life, certainly the po- 
tentially famous would fare better in an 
official career. 

The uncertainty of tenure as a factor in 



making public service unattractive is un- 
doubtedly doomed to eradication. So 
also is the "political atmosphere" by 
which is meant the requirement that the 
employes do political work — "pulling 
doorbells", and engaging in kindred avo- 
cations. Under it is included also that 
attitude of favoritism by those in power 
to "the faithful" in a partisan sense, often 
at the expense of those faithful to their 
real duties. It may not be amiss here to 
include also the still all too frequent and 
characteristic "tone" of some of our pub- 
lic offices — the loafing, the dense tobacco- 
smoke, the spitting, the frivolity, the gos- 
sip — that to the serious worker must be 
indeed a strong incentive to find more in- 
spiring environment. 

Every other consideration pales into in- 
significance, however, beside the two pri- 
mary reasons for resignations from public 
service. These reasons — relatively poor 
pay, and lack of promotional opportun- 
ity — are primarily economic and they go 
straight to the heart of our question. 

We were brought up on the cynicisms 
about job hunters, and political sinecures, 
and all the rest of it, so that we are ha- 
bitually inclined to take the attitude that 
it is easy to get numerous takers for every 
public job that is offered. In assuming 
that" attitude, we are prone to forget the 
economic phenomena that are taking place 
around us and that affect our question 
profoundly. We see on the one hand a 
tendency of rising — nay, soaring — living 
costs, of a constant and rapid advance in 
prices of all commodities and in prices of 
labor as well. In contradistinction to 
this we find public salaries virtually static. 
This rapidly widening gap between living 
costs and salaries has been growing for 
some time, but the past year has seen an 
acceleration that will unquestionably bring 
the issue to a head very shortly. In 
Philadelphia, salaries in the rank and file 
positions have been notoriously low; in 
many cases there has been no change since 
the 70's. The inertia and indifference of 
Councils in this vital matter have resulted 
in an acute situation. Firemen and num- 
erous other groups of underpaid municipal 



1916-17] 



Why do Men Leave the Public Service? 



151 



employes are now demanding a flat 20% 
salary increase, and there is not the slight- 
est question that in the present labor mar- 
ket the better ones among the men could 
earn much more outside the city's employ. 

Other cities, the states, and the national 
government are confronted with the same 
issue in the present period of high wages, 
costly living and boom, but even in less 
"prosperous" times many of the abler, the 
more desirable element among our public 
servants tend to go into private employ- 
ment. A number of interesting and illus- 
trative cases have come to the writer's no- 
tice of men in the various public services 
who have gone out into successful private 
careers. Usually better financial oppor- 
tunities formed the primary motive for the 
change. If space and time permitted, an 
exhaustive account of these cases would 
be interesting, but the few selected will 
give point to the story. 

One of the most conspicuous cases, of 
course, of a young man who got his 
"start" in public service and who later 
utilized the training and prestige there 
acquired in a business career is George B. 
Cortelyou, Secretary to two presidents, 
our first secretary of commerce and labor, 
then postmaster general, then secretary of 
the treasury and now president of the 
Consolidated Gas Company of New 
York. And there is the equally well- 
known case of President Vanderlip of 
the National City Bank, whose work in 
the treasury department was probably the 
foundation of his later distinguished ca- 
reer in the financial world. It has be- 
come almost a tradition for secretaries of 
the treasury and comptrollers of the cur- 
rency to become bank presidents or cap- 
tains of industry when their terms expire, 
so a mere recital of names is unnecessary. 

Coming down the line from the more 
conspicuous places in the federal service, 
numerous interesting cases are observed. 
In the Bureau of Mines, Department of 
the Interior, where the training of em- 
ployes seems to be unusually valuable, it 
is reported that employes find little diffi- 
culty in getting business or professional 
openings outside and a number of its for- 



mer employes have met with remarkable 
success in outside activities. So also in 
the Bureau of Standards, the Reclama- 
tion Service, the Census Bureau, and other 
government offices. 

In the state governments we find con- 
spicuous instances of the same phenome- 
non. In Wisconsin, we are told of a 
railroad commissioner receiving $5000 
salary and resigning to accept a position 
paying twice as much, or more, with a 
large insurance company. Only recently, 
Commissioners Roemer and Erickson of 
the same state went into private practice 
as consulting engineers. In Illinois we 
come across a number of interesting cases ; 
two of these are typical and show the 
general tendency. Mr. T. R. Agg, for- 
merly assistant chief engineer of the state 
highway department, is now in business at 
Ames, Iowa, as a highway expert. Mr. 
George Graham left his position as actu- 
ary in the Illinois insurance department 
and is now employed in a similar capacity 
by a life insurance company. 

Another type of position, but one ex- 
hibiting this same proclivity of competent 
public servants is shown in the case of Mr. 
George C. Signor, until recently superin- 
tendent of the state institution for the 
feebleminded, at Spring City, Pa. This 
official's record attracted attention in pri- 
vate institutional circles, and he now is 
superintendent of the Hershey Industrial 
Farm, at twice the state's salary. 

Numerous other illustrations, from 
many states, might be cited as illustra- 
tions, but it is in the cities that this prob- 
lem of conservation of ability and train- 
ing in the public service looms largest. 
Every one interested in civic work can re- 
call numerous instances in his own exper- 
ience, especially in the cases of technical 
men, of municipal employes going into pri- 
vate business or practice and there utiliz- 
ing the city's professional schooling. A 
typical case is that of Dr. C. E. Ford 
who for six years held the position of 
health officer and commissioner of health 
of Cleveland, at a salary of $3500. 
Early this year Dr. Ford resigned from 



152 



The Public Servant 



Dec— Jan. 



the service of the city of Cleveland, to ac- 
cept a position with a large chemical com- 
pany at $7500 per annum, and expenses. 
While the Doctor was well equipped for 
his work before entering his duties as 
health officer, his six years' experience in 
that capacity gave him unusual prepara- 
tion for his present duties, which are the 
supervision of the health and welfare ac- 
tivities of his company. 

Then there is Henry Bruere who took 
the position of Chamberlain of New York 
City by appointment of Mayor Mitchell, 
and who resigned when half the mayor's 
term was up to ally himself with a large 
commercial enterprise. While it is true 
that Mr. Bruere brought to the Municipal 
Building more expert equipment, no 
doubt, than had ever been brought there 
before, yet he took away added prestige 
and invaluable experience. 

The Philadelphia papers a few days 
ago announced the resignation of Frank 
E. Northime, sometime assistant director 
of public works and one of Director 
Cooke's widely advertised "cracker- 
jacks". In leaving Philadelphia's ser- 
vice for the manufacturing game, Mr. 
Northime gave newspaper interviews in 
which virtually all four of the reasons 
given a page or two back, were expressed 
or implied as his grounds for leaving the 
service of the people. 

The case of J. L. Jacobs of Chicago, 
formerly efficiency expert of the civil ser- 
vice commission of that city, is widely 
known. Other cities great and small have 
had prominent cases like the foregoing, 
and any number of less conspicuous (but 
no less important) instances, such as those 
cited by City Manager Waite of Dayton. 
Mr. Waite points out that the chief book- 
keeper of Dayton's finance department, 
and one of his assistants recently resigned 
to become auditor and paymaster repect- 
ively of one of Dayton's large industrial 
corporations. So, too, in the urban coun- 
ties — Los Angeles County (Calif.) re- 
cently lost the services of its chief apprais- 
er, an expert on building valuations, who 
went to a private company in whose ser- 



vice his expert knowledge and experience 
are rich assets. 

And so on indefinitely, all over the 
country — with this qualification: Where 
standards of efficiency have been high, 
where a reputation for skill and capacity 
has been built up by the particular public 
service, private business has eagerly sought 
to divert to its own use the trained em- 
ployes, but where lax methods, incompe- 
tence, corruption have characterized the 
state, the city, the department, or the bur- 
eau, the individual public employe, how- 
ever competent and experienced person- 
ally, has been handicapped by prejudice 
whenever he sought a job outside the pub- 
lic's payroll. That was the old order — 
but the old order changeth. 

One of the prominent characteristics of 
the city-manager plan of municipal gov- 
ernment is the proviso that the manager 
hold office during good behavior. This 
is a new recognition of an ancient waste — 
the limited term. True, that time hon- 
ored institution was often the only way of 
getting rid of an incompetent higher offi- 
cial, but often it turned out of office the 
man with experience and ability and 
checked the momentum, so to speak, of 
the going concern. Coupled with that 
ancient evil, of course, was the wholesale 
clearing out of the "ins" in favor of the 
"outs" — a survival of the country's fron- 
tier life, which while still prevalent is 
contrary to the enlightened public senti- 
ment of the day. 

The waste occasioned by expiration of 
terms is too well known to need more 
than a mention. 

What, then, is public service as a ca- 
leer today? Our discussion leads us to 
infer that by many of our most promising 
governmental employes it is merely a 
training school for a better job in private 
life. 

In our hunt for efficient public service, 
we are barking up the wrong tree so long 
as we are blind to all things but methods, 
important as they are. Not only must 
we bring trained men to the service, but 
we must also keep in the service those 
whom we have trained. 



916-17] 



The New Profession of Public Health 



153 



Tne New Profession of Public Healtli 



The following is an excerpt 
from the first of a series of 
articles in The Survey on 
'The New Public Health*' 
by Alice Hamilton, M. D., 
and Gertrude Seymour. They 
are worth reading. Read 
them. 



The New Profession of Public Health 

Perhaps it need hardly be said that 
here is the work of a new profession. 
The doctor alone cannot meet the situa- 
tion — our already overburdened medical 
curriculum cannot take on in addition hy- 
giene, sanitation, vital statistics, epidemiol- 
ogy and all the rest. The applied science 
of preventive medicine has come to have 
a training of its own, recognized by spe- 
cial degrees — the C. P. H., or certificate 
in public health; and the D. P. H., doc- 
tor of public health. The object of this 
special training is a specific service — the 
prevention of disease. But evidently it 
is impossible to prevent disease without 
a knowledge of disease. Therefore the 
higher degree in public health presupposes 
some medical training, often the regular 
medical degree. 

But there is a distinction in point of 
view between medical practitioner and 
public health official. As Dr. Rosenau 
says, the doctor diagnoses and treats with 
a view to curing. His relation to the 
patient is personal. The health officer's 
interest is in the modes of spread of dis- 
ease, and in methods of preventing that 
spread. His attitude is impersonal. His 
relation is to the community, large or 
small, not to the individual. 

In this country there are at least twelve 
schools at which this special training is of- 
fered. These are, according to replies 
to the Surveys direct inquiry, last spring, 
Harvard-Technology School for Health 



Officers; the state universities of Califor- 
nia, Colorado, Michigan, New York, 
Pennsylvania and Wisconsin; the Detroit 
College of Medicine; and Johns Hop- 
kins, Tulane and Yale Universities. A 
plan for such a course has been adopted 
at Columbia, but has not yet been put 
into operation. Some of these are more 
brilliant in announcement than in achieve- 
ment; but several have made a most valu- 
able beginning. 

Fully thirty courses are given, all bear- 
ing directly upon problems of disease pre- 
vention — from microscopic water-life to 
drainage construction. Ten of these 
training centers select their courses from 
the university's medical school, depart- 
ment of social science, laboratories. Two, 
the Harvard-Technology School for 
Health Officers and the new foundation 
at Johns Hopkins, are distinct units in the 
university organization, although drawing 
upon the faculties of law, dentistry, engi- 
neering or medicine for a part of the teach- 
ing staff. 

Several schools have the cooperation of 
municipal and state health departments or 
industrial establishments, by means of 
which students in public health courses 
may visit factories of all kinds, gather 
vital statistics, inspect schools and do prac- 
tical field work under the instructor's su- 
pervision. In Colorado, factory and de- 
partment-store inspection form part of the 
course in sanitary surveys; and volunteer 
work in some health organizations is part 
of the requirement for both certificate and 
degree. Harvard-Technology students 
directly observe methods of medical in- 
spection of immigrants at the port of Bos- 
ton, and also the technique of quarantine. 
Several schools arrange to combine the 
last year of the medical course with pub-, 
lie health specialization; Wisconsin re- 
quires two years of special study subse- 
quent to the regular medical course. 

But this fundamental fact is evident 
everywhere: that the D. P. H. degree is, 



154 



The Public Servant 



Dec-Jan. 



like the Ph. D., not given upon a com- 
putation of time or number of courses, 
but rather represents long study and high 
attainment. 

The certificate usually given for one 
year's work sometimes marks a milestone 
on the way to the doctorate in public 
health; sometimes it means that health of- 
ficers have come in to "polish up" and 
to keep in touch with the newer methods; 
sometimes it suffices for the position to be 
filled — assistantships in non-official or- 
ganizations. It is not considered an 
equivalent of the D. P. H. or a substitute 
for it, nor does it always lead to the 
doctorate. 

And further, that public health is not 
only a distinct profession, but a profes- 
sion of high order, is evident from replies 
to the Surveys question on this point. 

"We are getting a very good class of 
students who are dedicating themselves to 
public health work with a zest and are 
quite willing to take the longer courses 
and subject themselves to severe exam- 
inations, in order to enter the new profes- 
sion," writes Dr. Rosenau of Harvard- 
Technology. "Some of our graduates 
have obtained places at $4,000 a year; 
others have accepted positions as health 
officers in small communities at $1,200 or 
$1,500 a year; others have accepted as- 
sistantships in teaching and research in de- 
partments of preventive medicine in medi- 
cal schools ; others have taken charge of 
public health laboratories; one occupied 
the chair of preventive medicine in the 
Harvard Medical School of China; one 
is epidemiologist to the state board of 
health, and so it goes." 

"With very few exceptions (two were 
advised because of temperamental unsuit- 
ability not to continue) , our students have 
been of high grade," says Dr. Abbott of 
Pennsylvania. "All have received satis- 
factory appointments. I can say that 
they were the 'pick' of the younger gradu- 
ates in medicine." 

That there is already a wide recogni- 
tion of this training is shown by the fact 
that students are called to positions even 
before they finish the course. "We do 



not seem to have much trouble placing 
our graduates," writes one school. "In 
fact, it is hard to have them stay with us 
until the degree is reached. The large 
hospitals, the city laboratory and the state 
laboratory absorb our output." 

The Part of the Public Health Nurse 

Upon nursing service, too, the influence 
of the new movement has been felt. The 
value of the public health nurse is evident 
to make the actual individual demonstra- 
tion to the mass of people who must be 
reached in their own homes. The work 
that began as "district" or "visiting" 
nursing has been broadened by study of 
distinctive public health problems in cities 
and in rural communities; of the structure 
of prevention, relief and philanthropy; of 
methods of progressive health departments, 
and all experiments for bringing the expert 
help of those eager to give it in contact 
with those not always eager to receive it. 

Such training must as a rule be ac- 
quired outside hospital, walls. It is of- 
fered in the Department of Nursing, 
Teachers' College, Columbia University, 
in affiliation with Henry Street Settle- 
ment; by Simmons College and the Boston 
District Nurses' Association ; in the School 
of Applied Social Sciences of Western 
Reserve; in the University of Ohio; by 
the College of Medicine in the Univer- 
sity of Cincinnati ; and by the Philadelphia 
Visiting Nurses' Association in connection 
with Phipps Institute. 

The recognized value of these post- 
graduate courses is proved by the demand 
for the graduates, a demand greatly ex- 
ceeding the supply. 



KEEP PEGGING AWAY 
AT IT. . 

We have. But we need 
munitions of war. Three 
year pledges of $100 or 
more will enable us to 
make five years progress in 
one. Literally. Now is 
the acceptable time. 

Will you help in your own 
way? 



Would you help us finance: 
An active propaganda for 

A National University 

for 

Training tor Public 

Service 

What is wanted at Washington 
is not another university like Yale, 
Harvard, or Columbia, nor like 
Minnesota, California or Wiscon- 
sin nor any of the other existing uni- 
versities. What is wanted is an 
agency — not a building — to utilize 
the extensive and rich educational 
opportunities of the national public 
service for the education of the new 
type of public servant and citizen 
which the increased social demands 
of modern community life demand. 

Tell us that you will help! 
Tell us to what extent ! 
Let us mite you in detail about it. 



"The proposal that the government establish 
a National University at Washington presup- 
poses that the government has a definite educa- 
tional problem to solve, and that no existing 
agencies do or can solve it. Juxtaposed state- 
ments of the many problems facing the nation 
which can be met by education, and of the 
facilities offered by the established institutions 
of higher learning, disclose at least one major 
problem unsolved or insolvable without the or- 
ganization of a new institution; namely, the 
training of experts to do the work distinctly 
peculiar to government. Such work for ex- 
ample includes service in the diplomatic and 
consular fields, in the Patent Office, in the 
Bureau of Printing and Engraving, in the Agri- 
cultural Department, in the Industrial Relations 
Commission, in the Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission, and in many other departments and 
commissions. 

"It is evident without argument that the 
high degree of efficiency required to meet the 
growing complexity of governmental activities, 
can best be obtained by selecting persons of 
reasonably demonstrated fitness for the service, 
training them in the actual work, and supple- 
menting their training with an equal amount of 
co-ordinated instruction and research." 



Society for the Promotion of Training for Public Service 
Box 380, Madison, Wisconsin, 



S. P. T. P. S. Died Today 

Dec. 31, 1920.— There died today in its full vigor the 
S. P. T. P. S. This was an organization to promote 
training for public service and the upbuilding of gov- 
ernmental administration. It had a vision of a democ- 
racy that could really get its will expressed and car- 
ried out. It therefore urged in season and out, in 
time of world war, the need for trained personnel and 
improved governmental machinery. The constituted 
agencies of society, the universities and high schools, 
and the public service itself through civil service com- 
missions, have accepted their duty and are training 
men for the public service and in the public service. 
With the assured success of the propaganda, the 
S. P. T. P. S. voluntarily disbanded today. 

The movement was organized in 1912 under the 
auspices of the American Political Science Associa- 
tion. In 1915 it was felt that to be a success the move- 
ment must have an agency which would be devoted to 
it entirely and not incidentally, and that it should ap- 
peal to university alumni, to public officials and to all 
citizens. It was for this reason that the S. P. T. P. S. 
was organized in 1915. 



The campaign is now on in 1917 and your co-opera- 
tion is earnestly requested. Join the Society today. 
Membership dues are as follows: 

Associate membership $3.00 a year 

Active membership 5.00 a year 

Contributing membership 10.00 a year 



s. p. t. p. s. 

Box 380 

Madison, Wisconsin 

Enclosed please find $ for which enroll me as a 

member of the S. P. T. P. S. 

Name 

Address 



XLhc public Servant 

' ' There can be no higher ambition than that of serving the state, nothing more creditable than to serve it well. " ' 



Vol. 2, No. 1 
Whole No. 1 1 



Issued Monthly except July and August, by the 

Society for the Promotion ot Training for Public Service 

Madison, Wisconsin 



Feb., 1917 



^!llllll!lllli:illl!llllllllllllllllllll!llinillllllllllllllllllllllllll!iillllllllllllllllllllilllll:!llllllllll!lll!!i:i:il!H 

| To the Members of the Society for the Promotion of Training for 

| Public Service, 

all who have by contributions, by inspiration and by co-operation made 
| possible the propaganda for training for public service, this number of 

I The Public Servant 



is dedicated because of their practical faith in what tc/many Jteemed a 
dream* — something highly desirable but utterly im^^cticable, but 
which is now an accepted and vigorous movement. 

W\ ■ I 

7<t!l!llllllll]lllllllilll|IIIIIIIU \\\~. 

* "For while a prophetic, visionary and young man's movement now, this Conference (our first 
Conference on Universities and Public Service) has back of it trends in the political and educational 
world which are not to be reversed." — Christian Science Monitor in 1914. 



FROM A BILL IN THE WISCONSIN LEGISLATURE. 

THE BOARD of regents of the state university shall establish and 
maintain, beginning with the academic year 1918-1919, a train- 
ing school for public service. Such school shall be a professional 
school and shall be devoted to practical training for the service of the 
state of Wisconsin or of any county or municipality therein, or of civic 
organizations. 



158 



The Public Servant 



[February 



XLbe public Servant 

EDWARD A. FITZPATRICK, Editor 
Issued Monthly by the 




Madison, Wis. 



Board of Trustees 
Charles McCarthy .... Madison, Wis. 

F. G. Young Eusrene Oregon 

Winston Churchill .... Cornish, N. H. 
Clarence G. McDavitt . . . Boston, Mass. 

Will C. Hogg Houston, Texas 

Zona Gale Portage, Wis. 

Niel Gray, Jr Oswego, N. Y. 

John S. Murdock . . . Providence, R. I. 
Parke R. Kolbe . . . . . Akron, Ohio 
Charles M. Fassett . . . Spokane, Wash. 
Louis B. Wehle .Louisville, Ky. 

Director 
Edward A. Fitzpatrick . . Madison, Wis. 



LOOKING FORWARD 

A bill was introduced in the Wis- 
consin Senate by Senator Barwig 
providing- for a training school for 
public service at the University of 
Wisconsin. 

A bill with a similar purpose was 
introduced in the Wisconsin Assem- 
bly by Mr. Evjue. 

Governor Capper of Kansas, a 
member of cur Society, will take up 
with the State Board of Administra- 
tion, which has full power, the ques- 
tion of the establishment of a train- 
ing school for public service at 
the University of Kansas. 

We are advised that a bill some- 
what similar to Senator Barwig 's 
will probably be introduced in the 
Illinois Senate. 

These perhaps are the most signifi- 
cant steps taken in the movement of 
training for public service to date. 
They are a very definite indication 
that we are passing out of the propa- 
ganda into the constructive period 
of our work. 



(California) asked the secretary of a 
civil service commission in a nearby county 
to present the case for civil service. In- 
stead of going and patting his county on 
the back and himself, he wrote to forty 
prominent men all over the country who 
had intimate personal experience with 
civil service administration for a statement 
of their experience and conclusions. In 
this way the views of practical men with 
actual experience were secured and other 
practical men were convinced. This 
method is at least suggestive and worthy 
of imitation. 



A Suggestive Procedure. 

Some members of the commission to 
draft a charter for San Diego County 



Ethics of Public Service 

Sometime soon we shall want to dis- 
cuss the ethics of public service. For the 
present let us present two situations. 

An' attorney-general has served one 
term. He is elected for another. Soon 
after his election he announces he will 
join a law firm. He does. 

Queries: Should he continue in his 
public office? If not, should he have re- 
signed to permit another election? If he 
should wait so as to give the governor the 
opportunity to appoint an attorney-gen- 
eral, would his action be ethical from the 
public service viewpoint? Does so-called 
legal ethics cover the situation? 

The firm this particular attorney-general 
joined practices before the administrative 
commissions of the state. Suppose, as 
might very - likely happen, the firm of 
Smith, Jones, Richards and Mr. Attorney- 
General were to appear as lawyers for a 
client who appealed from the decision of 
the Industrial Commission, could Mr. At- 
torney-General in his public capacity de- 
fend the commission as is his duty? 

In the same state the Secretary of the 
State Board of Health has a private prac- 
tice. Query. Should a real ethics of pub- 
lic service permit such a practice? Should 
this same secretary be permitted to be the 
vice-president of a realty company which 
is likely at any time to be subject to 
prosecution by the State Board of Health 
for violation of the state health laws? 



1917] 



Professional Training for Important Positions 



159 



Professional Training for Important Positions in the 

Public Service* 

Edmund J. James 
President, University of Illinois 



In the year 1 885 I presented to the 
trustees of the University of Pennsylvania 
a formal plan for the establishment of a 
College of Practical Affairs which was 
to undertake to do in an academic way 
for the great callings of merchandising, 
railroading, insurance, banking, journal- 
ism, and the various branches of the pub- 
lic service what the schools of law, medi- 
cine and theology had done for the tradi- 
tional learned professions. 

The time had not yet come for such a 
plan. It would have involved merely the 
extension and systematic development of 
the Wharton School of Finance and 
Economy which had been but recently 
formed at the University of Pennsylvania 
and in which I was a professor. But it 
could not be accomplished at that time. 

An 1883 Proposal for Training for 
Public Service 

I had made in the year 1 883 a pretty 
careful study of the German, English and 
French systems of preparing men for the 
leading positions in the public service and 
had become convinced at that time — and 
the conviction had become more definite 
with every passing year since, that the so- 
called system of civil service reform as it 
was named in the early eighties — later 
commonly described as the merit system 
— would never work out in perfect work 
unless coupled with it should be a sys- 
tematic plan for the adequate training of 
the candidates for positions in the civil 
service. 

Character of Civil Service Reform 

Our so-called merit system as it has 
been applied in this country, even where 



♦Presented to the First Conference o 
reprinted at this time because it state 
tions with reference to practical train 



honestly administered has done little more 
than cut out the debasing element of the 
so-called spoils system. It has not secured 
or stimulated or preserved efficiency in any 
marked degree. In fact it has acted in 
more cases than one to foster the appoint- 
ment of incapables and to protect the in- 
efficient and indolent in office. 

The English system of civil service, 
after which ours was molded, sprang from 
the same causes as ours — not the desire to 
establish a thoroughly scientific system for 
recruiting the public service, but the mere 
determination to set some bounds, if pos- 
sible, to the corroding and corrupting sys- 
tem of party spoilation of the public ser- 
vice. 

As a result a system of examinations 
elementary in character, calling for no 
special training — consequently offering no 
guarantee whatever that the candidates 
were qualified for any really valuable ser- 
vice; in order to select the least incapable 
from a crowd of candidates none of whom 
might really be prepared for difficult posts 
the English adopted the competitive sys- 
tem — though oftentimes getting the least 
desirable of the least incapable. 

As the English required no school 
training at all they were inevitably forced 
to keep their, pass standard at a point 
which the average person of reasonable 
intelligence could prepare himself pri- 
vately to reach. The result on the whole 
was what might have been expected, an 
unintelligent somewhat indolent body of 
civil servants with little initiative, small 
vision, and narrow sympathy. 

The Germans, it seemed to me, had 
chosen a far better method. Instead of 
saying how can we get rid of a rotten 

n Universities and Public Service, and 
s in a simple and helpful way proposi- 
ng for public service. 



60 



The Public Servant 



[February 



political system — they asked how can we 
make an honest, capable, efficient civil 
service whose members shall have a wide 
outlook, ambition to improve the service 
and ample initiative enterprise? 

As they stated the problem — at bot- 
tom the same in all countries — in a 
broader and more fundamental way, so 
they proceeded to solve it in a practical 
and sensible fashion. 

The German Solution for a Trained 
Public Service 

They insisted, first of all, that the can- 
didates for important public positions in 
the civil service should have a broad lib- 
eral education as the foundation of all 
special training. 

They insisted that the candidates 
should Set this training — not in the hap- 
hazard way of self education or private 
tutoring but in some recognized school or- 
ganized and equipped to furnish this edu- 
cation. These schools are the gymnasia 
and realschulen — the classical and mod- 
ern language colleges whose curriculum 
corresponds roughly to the completion of 
the sophomore year's work in a standard 
American college. This insistence upon 
the completion of a systematic, well 
planned school curriculum of a definite 
kind before admitted to the state exami- 
nation for admission to the civil service is 
the first striking difference between the 
German on the one hand and the English 
and American civil service on the other 
and to my mind it is the fundamental rea- 
son for the superiority of the German sys- 
tem. 

But the German is not content with this 
requirement of a general, liberal training. 
He insists further that the candidate for 
the higher positions in the civil service 
shall have a special professional training 
for this particular work in the universities, 
or technical schools of similar rank. The 
candidate must be able to present a cer- 
tificate that he has attended one of these 
schools for three or four years before he 
is admitted to the first state examination 



for admission to the lower grades of the 
service. 

In most of the important branches of 
the service the candidate must after pass- 
ing this first examination go into the regu- 
lar service as cadet or apprentice and 
learn the details of the service itself be- 
fore he can receive a permanent appoint- 
ment. 

And after all this preparation he does 
not receive an appointment as a matter of 
course because he has passed a series of 
examinations, but is appointed to a posi- 
tion because his superiors think he is qual- 
ified for the work he is set to do. It is 
this last final test which distinguishes in 
the second place the German civil service 
from our own and the English system in 
so striking a manner. The German then 
insists upon three things (I) liberal edu- 
cation, (2) special training, (3) prac- 
tical try-out, and provides schools and op- 
portunities for the fine testing of these 
three features. 

Is it any wonder that German city ad- 
ministration, the German army, the Ger- 
man navy, the public forest, the canals 
and the railways are the admiration of the 
world ? 

I do not mean to say that the German 
system is faultless — far from it. The 
Germans see many defects themselves. 
Their conception of a liberal education is 
too narrow. Their notion that a legal 
training is necessary or most desirable for 
the higher position in nearly all branches 
of the public service is certainly mistaken, 
and their service would be greatly im- 
proved by permitting other forms of train- 
ing also. 

The practical period of probation is 
not always properly organized to secure 
the best results in the way of training. 
But in spite of all these defects, taken in 
the large and on the whole, the German 
system of preparation for the public ser- 
vice is in my opinion the best now in op- 
eration in any civilized country. 

It has the essence of the thing in it, and 
we shall advance in this whole field as we 
adopt the underlying principle. 



1917] 



A German Argument 



61 



The Situation in the United States 

Our conditions, however, are now very 
different from those in Germany, and will 
doubtless continue to be so for a long time 
to come. It will be several moons before 
our states, cities and the nation will insist 
on proper qualifications to perform the du- 
ties of their offices for the incumbents. In 
the meantime I think much may be done 
in preparing the public to support such a 
requirement by organizing in our universi- 
ties and technical schools courses of study 
which will prepare men to undertake the 
duties of such posts, hoping that if they 
are not themselves elected or appointed to 
the highest positions they may at least be 
chosen as expert advisers by the officers. 

The mere existence of such trained men 
will lead to their employment more and 
more instead of relying on untrained par- 
ties, public officials failing as they will in 
ever increasing number as their problems 
become more and more complicated will 



in despair turn to such men for assistance, 
and the people will begin to say after a 
while: why shouldn't we select those 
qualified men in the first place instead of 
whipping the devil around the stump in 
this way. And when the question is once 
asked in earnest the day of the trained 
public officials will be here. 

The existence of such centers for the 
training of these men would lead inevi- 
tably to the steady and rapid development 
and application of the science underlying 
these various callings and thus the basis 
for a new and wiser administration will 
have been gained. 

It goes without the saying that if the 
universities can secure the co-operation of 
public officials in such a way that the stu- 
dents pursuing these courses can work in 
their offices for a time while carrying on 
their studies, a much needed practical ele- 
ment may be brought into the whole 
scheme. 



A German Argument 



Under the title of "Science and 
the Civil Service 11 the educational 
supplement of The Times (Lon- 
don, Eng.) prints a translation of a 
very significant letter from The 
Committee cf the Institution of Ger- 
man Engineers to Herr von Beth- 
mann Hollweg, which we print in 
full below. Some of the more sig- 
nificant passages for America we 
have put in bold faced type. The 
complete letter is worth reading and 
re-reading. — The Editor. 



The following is a translation of a let- 
ter in favour of the opening of the Ger- 
man Civil Service to men of scientific 
training which has been addressed to Herr 
von Bethmann Hollweg by the Institu- 
tion of German Engineers: — 

Your Excellency, — The committee of 
the Institution of German Engineers urges 
that steps should be taken by modification 



of the law in the Confederated States, and 
particularly in Prussia, by removing ob- 
structions of the law of 1 906 concerning 
eligibility for the higher posts in the Civil 
Service so as to make it possible that not 
only lawyers, but also graduates of the 
technical high schools should be able to 
take up careers in the higher Civil Service. 
Already before the war, after exhaus- 
tive discussions extending over many years, 
the demand had been expressed that can- 
didates for the higher posts in the Civil 
Service should be given a scientific aca- 
demic training, so as to enable .them to 
have a full understanding of the condi- 
tions of public life upon which industrial 
questions and the requirements of trade 
and commerce exert a preponderating in- 
fluence at the present day. The war has 
confronted the State with an unexpected 
jiumber of new problems that have caused 
it to call into its seiVice the intellect of the 
most diverse professions. This extension 
of admission to the higher careers in the 
Civil Service that has been introduced un- 



162 



The Public Servant 



[February 



der the pressure of the circumstances of 
the lime must be extended, the barriers 
that still exist in this respect must be re- 
moved, if it is to be possible to ensure the 
full development of the economic forces 
of the country after the war. It has now- 
become an imperative necessity that the 
demand that has been expressed for many 
years by the Institution of German En- 
gineers should be fulfilled, and that uni- 
versity graduates, particularly of the tech- 
nical high schools, should be admitted to 
the higher grades of the Civil Service, so 
as to place the selection for this career on 
a broader basis. 

Already 10 years ago, on the occasion 
of the discussions in the Prussian Diet on 
the Government proposals concerning the 
change of the course of study for law 
(1903), and later, after their rejection, 
in the discussions on the law concerning 
eligibility for careers in the higher Civil 
Service (1906), the Government admit- 
ted readily that the training of the higher 
Civil Sei-vice officials did not correspond 
with the requirements of the day. The 
removal of this defect was unsuccessfully 
attempted at that time by a proposed re- 
form of the academic curriculum, and is 
supposed now, to have been achieved by 
means of the law of 1906 by measures 
that only take effect subsequent to the aca- 
demic study. Later experience has shown 
that the method that has been adopted is 
hardly likely to be able to impart to the 
coming generation of State officials a 
special understanding of the economic pro- 
cesses that govern life in our days. The 
training of the majority of higher-grade 
officials in the Civil Service and communal 
bodies that has become customary and has 
been determined by the law consists in a 
secondary school education that has a 
particular bias towards the humanities, 
and a short university course which is al- 
most exclusively composed of legal sub- 
jects. 

The course of study laid down for the 
lawyers is at the same time, and without 



change, also the course of study for the 
officials of the Civil Service. This rigid 
connection of professions, that must be ad- 
mitted to be very different in their prac- 
tice, is unique in the whole educational 
system of Germany. It constitutes an in- 
herent contradiction, and has gradually 
become an unsurmountable obstacle which 
will in all probability wreck the system 
that was to be built on the foundation of 
the law of 1 906. The system of train- 
ing that has been described above has 
created the peculiar situation that all 
young people who have a leaning towards 
any one of the numerous branches of the 
Civil Service, whether by family tradi- 
tion, ideals, or special capacity, are 
forced, even against their inclination for 
science, to devote themselves completely to 
a legal training in order to pass the first 
law examination, as this provides practi- 
cally the first documentary evidence ob- 
tainable for admission to a Civil Service 
career in the Empire, the States, the com- 
munities, and many other posts. This 
route is closed to the graduates of other 
faculties — for instance, of all the experi- 
mental sciences — by the provisions of the 
above-mentioned Prussian law and of sim- 
ilar laws in the other German States, as 
well as by the custom that is developing 
in consequence of this law of appointing 
lawyers for administrative work. 

In consequence of the preponderating 
influence that technical questions and the 
requirements of industry have today on all 
branches of public life, and the increasing 
participation of the provinces, communi- 
ties, and towns in technical and scientific 
enterprises, Civil servants are called upon 
to deal with problems the expert solution 
of which calls for just the type of mental 
equipment that is provided by the techni- 
cal high schools. The greater part of 
the education at these institutes is not 
based on retrospection and definition, but 
is directed forwards and designed with a 
view to productive activity. An educa- 

(Continued on p. 166) 



917] 



The New Education and the New Public Service 



63 



The New Education and tne New Public Service 

By Charles McCarthy 
Chief, Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library* 



The election is over. Now let us 
clean up the mess! If half the charges 
and counter charges have a semblance of 
truth we are a dismal failure in the eyes 
of the world. 

Are we a united nation? 
Are we Americans? 
Can we find remedies for the abuse of 
the money power; the shame of the pork 
barrel ; the spoils system ; the shameful un- 
preparedness, civil and military; the 
gross inefficiency in public office; the 
slowness and costliness of justice ; the high 
cost of living; the vast waste of land and 
produce and natural resources; the con- 
gestion of the cities; the general cheapness 
of our legislative material ; the astounding 
lack of diplomats and statesmen; the lack 
of constructive or administrative ability. 

No true citizen, whatever political 
views he may hold, who watched the 
course of this last campaign but must 
feel nausea and a sense of failure of the 
American ideals. 

What makes political ability and de- 
cent government? Many things, no 
doubt, but education should be the prin- 
cipal factor in making a republic. Every 
one should agree to that. 

If conditions are as they are, it is full 
evidence that education has failed in some 
manner. Wherein is this failure? 

Certainly the failure is not in the num- 
ber and accessibility of our educational 
institutions. We have more than the 
world has ever seen before. 

It must be that they do not produce the 
right kind of material. Somehow the 
right kind of men are not produced as 
leaders of thought, as administrators, and 
as constructive statesmen. Either that is 
true or else there is no place in legisla- 
tion or administration for such training — 
that our government is so formed that 
such men are not wanted or provided for. 



It is evident, at least, that the kind of 
men we have now are not wanted and 
that democracy has not faith in them. It 
is my humble opinion that never in all 
history was there a greater need of the 
right hind of men than there is today, or 
a greater appreciation of the right kind of 
leader. I believe and have always be- 
lieved that when you come to educated 
leaders, the supply creates the demand. 
May there not be an education then where 
we have not the right kind of education 
to produce the right kind of leader and 
the right kind of citizen? It is my hum- 
ble opinion that the methods of teaching 
are not such as to give us the right kind 
of a man. It is my opinion that it is fu- 
tile to think you can turn out a farmer by 
giving him four years at agricultural 
theory. You couldn't make a baseball 
player that way. It is equally futile to 
believe that you can turn out a business 
man by giving him four years in a uni- 
versity school of commerce. Nor can 
you turn out an administrator, a legisla- 
tor, a citizen, or a professor of politics or 
economics by the same route. There is 
but one route and that is the substitution 
of a large degree of practical training — a 
large degree of trial and research under 
real conditions and a large degree of ac- 
tive credit in the universities or schools 
for such practical work. This should be 
the case not only in the university but in 
the high schools and above all in the con- 
tinuation schools. We shall continue to 
lack leaders and citizens just so long as 
we continue the present futile methods. 
The lessons that the British civil service 
learned from dealing with the Hindus 
should be sufficient to warn us that our 
present methods are wrong. It will be 
remembered that the Hindus took the 
British civil service examinations and 
passed higher examinations than the Brit- 



* Abstract of address before the Third National 
and Public Service, Philadelphia, Nov. 16, 1916. 



Conference on Universities 



164 



The Public Sei'vant 



[February 



ish born students but the examinations did 
not test the real energy and commanding 
personality of the men taking them but 
did test the theory and book learning. 
The results had to be set aside as those 
who won the highest places were totally 
incapable of administrating anything. 

I am quite aware that my statements 
will raise a storm of indignation in many 
quarters. When I point out the' small 
number of trained men in the service of the 
state, how few professors can be used in 
any way I shall be told that it is the fault 
not of the professors but of democracy. I 
shall hold, nevertheless, that the distrust 
of the man trained under our present sys- 
tem — the distrust of the professor in these 
matters is well founded. The blunders 
of those who would try to lead are evi- 
dence enough for the man in the street. I 
have but to name a few recent instances to 
show what I mean. Democracy is still to 
the multitude a mighty precious thing. 
Old Talleyrand once said to Napoleon, 
"There is somebody wiser than you, Na- 
poleon, and wiser than all your counselors 
and judges and that is Everybody." A 
good many of us still believe in that prin- 
ciple and so view with alarm the profes- 
sors and so-called educated men who 
would give us the short ballot and yet be 
afraid to go the whole distance and give 
us through the recall a democratic expedi- 
ent not incomparable with the manner of 
forming public opinion in England or on 
the continent. Also we democrats in our 
crude way do not like the growth of cer- 
tain expert commissions when we find that 
we have not the simple democratic ex- 
pedient such as the question or interpella- 
tion to go with it. We somehow in our 
blind groping are afraid of the building 
up of a hateful bureaucracy. We also 
show our distrust of so-called efficiency or 
economy programs of certain educated 
people who would chart our whole gov- 
ernment and make it all over in a night 
into a business man's business chart. 
Somehow we have learned that the 
growth of great institutions in England 
was not quite clear cut and that perhaps 



vitality may be sometimes sacrificed 
by these beautiful charts. I would per- 
sonally like to see somebody show me a 
chart which would show us the great con- 
stitution of England, which would show 
for instance how King George might not 
get his breakfast some fine morning if he 
did not create a certain number of peers 
when they were needed to pass a certain 
bill. When the product of our colleges, 
law schools, talk to us about putting our 
government on a budget basis to show (as 
those who gave us the recent New York 
constitution, happily defeated by the peo- 
ple, tried to do) that an executive elected 
for two years should be given the power 
to make a budget the items in which 
could not be raised by the legislature we 
get suspicious of the whole thing because 
we feel away down in our ignorant hearts 
that we should have the same power at 
least as the British have, the power to do 
away with that executive before he does 
damage, if roe wish. When we learn, 
that a distinguished political scientist ad- 
vises the President of another republic to 
become a monarch and when we see that 
advice met by a successful revolution 
against the President when he tried it, we 
are apt to lose faith in our teachers of 
political science and everything that comes 
from those who should be the leaders in 
all new reform in government, our col- 
leges and our college men. 

We know full well also that many of 
our colleges today have deliberately 
adopted the policy of keeping their stu- 
dents and professors of political science 
and economics from dipping too much in- 
to practical matters. Endowments and 
legislative appropriations have had their 
influence on quieting the method of re- 
search which will give a chance both to 
teacher and pupil to get at the results 
which will lead to both good citizenship, 
wise legislation, and decent government. 

I am sorry to say that democracy, in 
my humble opinion, is justified also in 
viewing the words of college men with 
some suspicion as we have seen only too 
often that those men are well paid attor- 



1917] 



Training for Public Service at Western Reserve University 



165 



neys, experts, engineers and accountants 
in the pay openly or secretly of interests 
which to say the least are not those who 
are seeking to enlarge and preserve the 
public interests and rights. 

We mustn't blame democracy then if 
we have no capable leadership in our na- 
tional halls, if our administration is poor, 
and if democracy has not provided a way 
for the trained administrator. If the 
colleges will stand out openly for the 
truth, if they will use modern methods of 
research and give at the same time a 
tauntless teaching all this may be changed. 

It is easy for some of us to go down 
into a ditch with a gun to our shoulders — 
it is harder but just as patriotic to stand 
out fearlessly for the truth. 

If we are going to clean up this messy 
government of ours we must do so by go- 



ing down into the mess whether those in 
it will have us or not and in a spirit of 
humble service strive without preconceived 
theories to keep our ears to the beating 
hearts of our people. It is dangerous to 
listen to teachers who do not know the 
difficulties about which they talk from ac- 
tive experience and who would therefore 
try to load on to us some theories which 
in no way will fit our body politic or our 
ideals. 

If we are to have training for public 
service in our colleges — and no man but 
will agree that it is our greatest crying ne- 
cessity — we must have that training 
through credit in our institutions for 
practical work and practical contact with 
the problems of government. In this 
way, and in no other, can real leaders 
come. 



Training for Public Service at Western Reserve 

University 



Western Reserve University organized 
at the beginning of this academic year, 
1916-17, a School of Applied Social 
Sciences with Professor James Elbert 
Culbert as Dean. In this school there is 
a Division of Municipal Administration 
and Public Service with Professor 
Augustus Raymond Hatton as Director. 
The announcement of the Division for 
1 9*1 6- 1 7 contains the following state- 
ment: 

General Statement 

The Division of Municipal Adminis- 
tration and Public Service deals with the 
civic problems of the present day in their 
political, legislative and administrative 
aspects. The human cost, as Well as the 
money cost, of inefficient government is 
being more generally recognized and citi- 
zens are demanding of their governmental 
authorities better service of a uniformly 
higher grade.* The necessity for a more 
secure tenure of administrative positions 
by qualified persons is receiving recogni- 
tion by the adoption of improved civil 
service standards and better regulations 



governing appointments and dismissals. 
The rapidly growing number of cities 
which are adopting the city-manager form 
of government indicates clearly a rising 
demand for trained men of experience in 
municipal administration. There is a 
growing tendency also for university men 
to enter the public service and secretarial 
work with civic agencies, as a career. 

This new situation requires a readjust- 
ment or adaptation in university training 
The ordinary academic courses in the uni- 
versities do not give the practical connec- 
tion with public affairs and public admin- 
istration that brings adaptability and 
efficiency. Private business, while fur- 
nishing important technical knowledge 
and practical experience, does not give 
the comprehensive view of public affairs, 
the familiarity with the essentials of man- 
agement-not-for-profit and the attitude of 
mind, required in a public administrator. 
Party organization does not, and cannot, 
provide the technical training that is essen- 
tial to meet the new requirements. It is 
the purpose of the Division of Municipal 
Administration and Public Service to pro- 



italics are ours. 



166 



The Public Servant 



[February 



vide not only academic instruction in gov- 
ernment and politics but practical training 
in the details of public administration. 

The work as now planned covers a 
period of two years; all the courses are 
distinctly professional in character and 
have a practical outlook. A distinguish- 
ing feature is responsible field work, con- 
ducted for its educational value, under 
the close supervision of members of the 
faculty who have had practical experience 
in positions of responsibility in municipal 
administration. During the second year 
this field work is increased both in amount 
and in specialization. The City of Cleve- 
land offers unusual opportunities for mu- 
nicipal research and first hand acquaint- 
anceship with administrative experience 
and with various forms of civic work. 

The Library of Research in Govern- 
ment, which the Department of Political 
Science has been building up during the 
past five years, is of special value to stu- 
dents in municipal administration. Its ex- 
ceptional resources are available in addi- 
tion to those of the University library and 
the other libraries of the city. 

Field Work 

Field work is required of all candidates 
for a degree. Each student's field work 
is under the immediate supervision of a 
selected member of the faculty and is to 
be done, as nearly as possible, under ac- 
tual conditions and in direct relation to 
concurrent or precedent class work. The 
curriculum is planned for a schedule of 
fifteen hours per week and for purposes of 
schedule-making three hours of supervised 
and carefully planned field work is re- 
garded as the equivalent of one hour of 
classroom work. The student will be able 
to secure as much as three-fifths of his 
training in practical work- Visits for pur- 
poses of observation and attendance at 
committee hearings, meetings 6f legislative 
bodies or civic agencies may be required 
in addition to the scheduled field work. 

Special emphasis is placed in the field 
work upon practical problems of adminis- 
tration, actual participation in practical 
tasks and routine work, handling of men 
and material, the preparation of depart- 



mental estimates, budget making, com- 
pilation of reports, preparation of statis- 
tical material, charts, diagrams, municipal 
exhibits, efficiency tests, the work of mu- 
nicipal statistical bureaus, legislative ref- 
erence bureaus and bureaus of efficiency 
and economy, court decisions as they af- 
fect administrative practice, bill drafting 
and the mechanics of law making. 

Practical training of this nature is of- 
fered in connection with the departments 
of government of the City of Cleveland, 
the County of Cuyahoga and the State of 
Ohio, the Cleveland Chamber of Com- 
merce, the Civic League of Cleveland, the 
City Club and other civic agencies. 

In the assignment of field work the in- 
structor in charge will give special consid- 
eration to its training value and to the 
needs of the individual student. During 
the second year approximately half-time 
will be given to this practical training in 
the field where the student's particular in- 
terest lies. 



(Continued from p. 162) 
tion among such surroundings must give at 
least as good a training for a Civil Service 
career as an education the principal aim 
of which is to classify the particular re- 
quirements of life according to legal con- 
ceptions. The knowledge of law and ad- 
ministration that is required by Civil ser- 
vants can be acquired today in every tech- 
nical high school. A large number of 
eminent men have been produced by a 
training in science, industry, and econom- 
ics. These men with broad views and 
organizing capacity have been in the past, 
and are still at the present moment, suc- 
cessful leaders in private industrial enter- 
prises. The forcible exclusion of the in- . 
tellect that is available amongst these cir- 
cles from participation in the higher Civil 
Service constitutes a waste of the intellect- 
ual powers of our nation. The monopoly 
that has been wrongly accorded to the le- 
gal course of study must be removed, and 
admission to a career in the higher Civil 
Service must be made free to graduates of 
the technical high schools. 
The Committee of the Institution 
of German Engineers. 



1917] 



Training for Public Service 



167 



Training for Public Service \Vith Special Reference to 
Training of Accountants* 

By Edward A. Fitzpatrick, 

Director, Society for the Promotion of Training for Public Service, 
Madison, Wisconsin. 



Gentlemen: It is a good sign that 
public officials are seriously interested in 
the problem of training men for public 
service. If anybody really knows the 
need for practical training for public ser- 
vice it is you. It is therefore particu- 
larly gratifying to the Society for the Pro- 
motion of Training for Public Service that 
you should have placed this subject on 
your program. 

With the public officials on the one 
hand feeling keenly the need and the uni- 
versity authorities on the other willing to 
help, the improvement of public adminis- 
tration in this country will be a matter of 
getting these agencies to co-operate. A 
first step for you city officials to take I 
shall suggest at the conclusion of this 
paper. But let us turn immediately to 
our subject which is Training for the Pub- 
lic Service with special reference to the 
training of accountants and financial offi- 
cers. Though I shall be concerned with 
the special opportunity that is before the 
universities, I wish to emphasize here that 
university training is only one way to 
* 'learn the game" — and let us hope it will 
never be the only way. The opportunity 
ought to be always before the bookkeeper 
in the lowest position to advance to the 
highest because of a sensible promotion 
system. The public service itself ought 
to provide the educational opportunity 
which will make possible such advance- 
ment on the basis of demonstrated ca- 
pacity. 

Upbuilding of Administration — tiie 
Great Need of American Democracy 

The greatest need of the American de- 
mocracy is the upbuilding of governmental 
administration — and governmental admin- 

* An address before a joint meeting of 
and Accounting officers and the Confere 
New York State, Syracuse, June 1, 1916. 



istration is the peculiar concern of mayors, 
comptrollers and accounting officers. 
President Lowell, of Harvard, has point- 
ed out in the case of the republic of Rome 
that it's "decline and fall" was due to 
internal weakness and constitutional dis- 
ability and not to external forces and 
points out specifically though there were 
other causes, surely "it is abundantly clear 
that government by a succession of ama- 
teurs, without expert assistance, had 
proved itself hopelessly incapable of 
maintaining an orderly administration on 
so gigantic a scale. The state had out- 
grown its machinery, and the empire by 
creating a new organization prolonged its 
life." And so the English publicist, J. 
M. Robertson, has pointed out that the 
"decline of this great state (Greece) was 
due to the fact that her science of practi- 
cal administration did not keep pace with 
her expansion and economic develop- 
ment." 

But one does not need to go so far 
afield. The European war has taught 
many lessons — and among others, the one 
we are interested in. 

What was the matter with England at 
the beginning of the war? The English 
soldier was brave. Somewhere in the 
ranks there were competent English gen- 
erals. But the wise ones saw that the 
non-success of England was due to lack 
of organization and administrative ma- 
chinery in getting munitions to the troops. 
Efficient organization and particularly ad- 
ministration saved the day. Lloyd 
George is the hero. 

Germany's cause had been progressing, 
from a military point of view, very satis- 
factorily. The war-zone blockade was 
declared. Reasonable military successes 

the National Association of Comptrollers 
nee of Mayors and other City Officials of 



168 



The Public Servant 



[February 



continued — but way down below the 
foundations were giving away. The food 
supply was poorly administered. A pub- 
lic opinion practically forces a minister to 
resign — a rather unusual experience in 
Germany. Delbreuch did resign, though 
the official reason given is ill health. A 
minister of provision is appointed. Ger- 
many hopes to rise through a special ad- 
ministrative reform. 

These lessons are driven home by the 
convulsive emphasis of war. But no such 
emotional background is driving home the 
same lessons and the same need for spec- 
ialized ability in the administration of 
government day-by-day. The civil ad- 
ministration of government is not so spec- 
tacular. Though sparks are flying in 
every direction, our vision is dulled be- 
cause the result does not go so immediately 
to the vitals of the civic life. Need I 
say in this company that in the long run 
they do? Life-in-death may be worse 
than death itself. 

Training for the Military Service 

If administration is so important, what 
can be done about it? At the outset we 
must recognize that the question of per- 
sonnel is fundamental, and that training 
personnel is yet more fundamental. Let 
us see what we do for military training. 
Recruiting agencies are distributed gener- 
ally over the country. An elaborate 
publicity campaign is being carried on, 
and all the arts of the advertiser are called 
into play. Elaborate training schools for 
officers are established at Annapolis and 
West Point, and a position is guaranteed 
to the graduate. , Organized opportuni- 
ties extending over a number of years are 
provided for both line and staff. Prac- 
tical training is combined with theoretical 
instruction; training in administration is 
combined with training in technique. Old 
age pensions and sickness disability pen- 
sions are provided. 

Does such an organization exist within 
the civil service of the country anywhere? 

Are any plans made for such organiza- 
tion and training for public service? 



Is the need for such organization and 
training really felt? 

Could there be a more complete con- 
trast? And yet we now see that mili- 
tary training is only a comparatively minor 
fact in war efficiency. The organization 
of the nation along industrial and agricul- 
tural lines is a very great factor in war 
efficiency. Mobilization of the adminis- 
tration makes all other factors of no avail 
or most useful. Mobilization of the ad- 
ministration for peace is the most effective 
mobilization for war, because its training 
is cumulative. 

Training for Business 

Now add, if you will, to the military 
contrast, the contrast with training for 
business. And here even our educational 
institutions have responded to this need. 
New York University, Dartmouth, Chi- 
cago, Pennsylvania, Illinois and others 
have schools of business, accounts and fi- 
nance. Other colleges and universities 
have more or less developed organizations 
for similar training. Harvard has a 
graduate school of business administration. 
Harvard establishes a very useful bureau 
of business research. Bureaus of chemi- 
cal and industrial research are being or- 
ganized under commercial auspices all 
over the country as supplementary agen- 
cies in the service of business. Efficiency 
engineers of more or less efficiency are 
everywhere in the land. Individual cor- 
porations are spending millions of dollars 
on technical and administrative research 
annually. Vocational guidance is popu- 
lar. "Corporation schools" are becoming 
more and more numerous daily. Schools 
for training and developing men in ser- 
vice are being recognized as a function of 
management. "Labor turnover" is in the 
consciousness of American business as a 
problem and serious efforts are made to 
solve it. In addition, the business of 
America accepts welfare work and work- 
men's compensation as good business 
sense, not philanthropy. 

Does such an organization exist in the 
civil service of the country? 



1917] 



Training for Public Service 



169 



Are there any plans made for such or- 
ganization or training in the public ser- 
vice? 

Is the need for such organization or 
need generally felt? 

Is lack of indifference or hostility to 
experts in the public service going to help 
business any? Hardly! On the other 
hand, disinterested business, business that 
wants fair play and a square deal will 
welcome intelligence and training on the 
part of those who are to exercise in the 
name of American democracy control or 
supervision over the vast business interests 
of the country. The welfare of the 
whole business structure depends to a very 
great degree on the relation of govern- 
ment to it. The welfare of business de- 
pends on making governmental adminis- 
tration intelligent and efficient. And yet, 
on the whole, American business is stolid. 
But you, gentlemen, can apply the lessons. 

These contrasts are thrown out for their 
suggestions. Answer these questions if 
you will. But I turn now to a specific 
phase of the subject and hope to raise 
questions which the organization here as- 
sembled can and will answer. 

The Influence of the Accountant* 

Let us turn to the subject of the influ- 
ence of the accountant and his place in 
government. 

This is the day of the accountant. 
Last night the sun of the lawyer set; to- 
day the sun of the accountant rises. 
While in our legislative councils the law- 
yer still has a voice, though a diminishing 
one, in our administration he is going fast. 
It is not uncommon in legislation to find 
the provision that not more than one law- 
yer may be on a certain commission or 
prohibiting lawyers from membership at 
all. 

This is merely the surface indication of 
a deep change in our contemporary life. 
Abstract formulas, vague general ideas, 
eighteenth or fifteenth century precedents 



*In this paper I am concerned with the 

tions — wica men who are responsible for 

ing." T think, however, the farther down 

the better it will be for the individuals, 



no longer have the power over us they for- 
merly had. Instead we have a passion- 
ate desire to know the concrete situation 
and to be guided by present social needs 
and present economic facts rather than by 
any theories or fantasies however new or 
however old. 

Governmentally this movement runs 
along with and is reinforced by the in- 
creasing extension of governmental super- 
vision and control. In this supervision 
and control accounting and financial prob- 
lems are fundamental. Is not the Inter- 
state Commerce Commission an account- 
ing body to a very great degree? Have 
you noticed how legal cases are turning 
more and more on accounting facts? 
Have you really put to yourself the 
thought that accounting is a necessary 
basis to the whole movement for state ad- 
ministrative commissions? 

Let it be repeated the accounting offi- 
cer is becoming an increasing factor in 
government. That he is not in the fore- 
ground does not matter much. Back of 
the executives in government, of mayors, 
of governors, of the president, are account- 
ing officers doing the detailed work. As 
advisers these men are giving more and 
more direction to public affairs. For this 
reason alone their training is of fundamen- 
tal social importance. 

The best illustration I can think of of 
the influence of accountants in government 
is the New York Bureau of Municipal 
Research. Perhaps no greater service 
has been rendered to the cause of admin- 
istrative reform of American cities, except 
it be the city manager plan, than the ac- 
counting reconstruction that was initiated 
and carried through by and in connection 
with the New York Bureau of Municipal 
Research and the men it has sent out. 
That achievement justifies the existence 
of the Bureau and all the money that has 
been spent upon it. It is an obvious fact, 
however, that without men like you, may- 
ors willing to co-operate with the Bureau, 

training of accountants in the higher posi 
what Dicksee calls "constructive account 
the training outlined in this paper extends 
for the professon and for public service. 



70 



The Public Servant 



[February 



and men like you, comptrollers and ac- 
counting officers who are "on the job" 
day in and day out, year in and year out, 
the achievements of the Bureau would 
have been impossible. 

The Limitation of the Accounting 
Service 

But the experience of the New York 
Bureau of Municipal Research also illus- 
trates the limitation of the accounting ser- 
vice. Accounting is a handmaiden of 
democracy. It records the day-to-day 
experience in financial terms and, we trust, 
in intelligible form. Light is thus thrown 
upon public policies. It organizes this 
experience with reference to the adminis- 
trative needs of government. It is an im- 
portant and essential part of the adminis- 
trative machinery. But when public pol- 
icy is determined by the alleged needs of 
the accounting system the handmaiden has 
become the lady, the second fiddle be- 
comes the concert meister. We are then 
on the rocks. 

Perhaps one of the best illustrations of 
this is the segregation of the items of the 
budget act. To exercise the detailed 
control which New York needed the seg- 
regation of the budget act was devised as 
the remedy with the proper accounting ma- 
chinery. Mr. Bruere now calls it a "me- 
ticulously detailed segregation." Then 
without reference to local conditions the 
gospel of segregation was proclaimed to 
the country and spread as the panacea. 

Mr. Cleveland, when he returned from 
the President's Commission on Economy 
and Efficiency, rebelled against this de- 
tailed segregation, and the New York Bu- 
reau of Municipal Research in this par- 
ticular is now proclaiming a saner doc- 
trine. Mr. Bruere has said: "It was 
conceived not by those responsible for ad- 
ministering the departmental affairs, but 
by those responsible for granting funds. 
It was prompted not so much by the de- 
sire to expedite the performance of public 
business as to prevent age-long and con- 
spicuous misuse of public funds, which un- 
der lax organization and ineffective admin- 



istration had become characteristic in New 
York as in other American cities. The 
purpose of the new budget method was in 
theory a negative purpose; that is to say, 
it was inhibitory rather than directive." 

In my humble opinion, this has been 
true of the whole budget propaganda. 
The budget is regarded, primarily as an 
accounting problem. Is it not? It is 
only secondarily an accounting problem. 
It is a social problem because it concerns 
intimately the welfare of every citizen of 
the community. For example, in deter- 
mining our health budget the death rate 
and its causes are of infinitely more signifi- 
cance than any accounting facts. These 
may throw light on the death rate, and 
they are important, but they are second- 
ary. In this particular the important 
thing is not retrospective, but prospective, 
namely, that "public health is purchasable. 
Within certain limits a community can 
determine its death rate." 

The budget is, too, the fundamental 
political problem because it is the sov- 
ereign political act. And right at the 
heart of its formulation are the comp- 
trollers and accounting officers. Hence 
the fundamental social importance of the 
kind of education they receive. 

The Training of the Accountant 

Consider, if you will, the training of the 
accountant. 

And in this company one need not stress 
very much the fact that the training of 
the commercial accountant will not do for 
the needs of the public service. Merely 
from the technical standpoint, government- 
al accounting has peculiar problems of its 
own besides a distinctive subject-matter; 
In content, therefore, the course of train- 
ing must be different. The governmental 
accountant must see his profit or loss in 
terms of social facts, and not in terms of 
dollars and cents. In fact, it is impossi- 
ble to conceive it in any real sense in any 
such terms. ^ Likewise the credit side of 
the ledger, say of his health department 
account, is the number of babies saved or 
whose deaths were prevented, the reduced 



917] 



Training for Public Service 



171 



death rate, the lessened sick rate, the in- 
creasing vitality of the population, or per- 
haps there ought to run along with the fi- 
nancial facts on the debit side, a typhoid 
or other contagion, numbers of preventable 
deaths, and other pertinent socio-health 
facts of democracy — that is, the large 
ends which his technique must subserve, 
or, to put it in political terms, he must 
have qualities of statesmanship. The 
routine training of the school will never 
produce or develop these results. What 
will? 

Bringing these men actually into con* 
tact with the problems of government, 
making them feel responsibility for these 
problems and using these problems as the 
means of educating prospective public ser- 
vants — these things will do it, if it is in 
them. If such men are caught young, the 
future has much in store for them and for 
us in the way of improved administration. 

That prompts the remark that a very 
big opportunity and a very solemn public 
duty rest upon the great existing training 
school for public service, namely, the pub- 
lic service itself. On translating it in 
personal terms, this big opportunity and 
this solemn public duty are your oppor- 
tunity and your duty. 

We must stop that kind of thinking 
that regards school as a thing apart— an 
educational hot house — an incubator. 
School — and that means high school, col- 
lege, university, technical school, profes- 
sional school — must be made to include 
the social community of which it is a part. 
The school is merely the agency through 
which, among other things, the social 
forces are used for educational purposes 
as the community interprets education. 
In this point of view training for public 
service must view the governmental offices 
and machinery as part of the educational 
organization of the city, state, or nation* 
This is true whether we are training men 
m the public service for larger usefulness 
in the public service or whether we are 
training men for the public service. 

Training Men in the Public Service 

Let us look at both these subjects 
briefly. First: Training men in the pub- 



lic service. The modern science of man- 
agement regards the training of men in 
service as an essential duty of the man- 
agement. Schools and classes should be 
organized in the service to give supple- 
mentary training. But administrators 
should see to it that the daily tasks of the 
subordinate should be educative — that the 
workman gets out of his work his educa- 
tional coefficient. The co-operation of 
correspondence schools, of municipal col- 
leges as in New York City and of uni- 
versity extension departments as in Wis- 
consin should be sought. 

It is one of my hopes for this move- 
ment that the college professors and other 
teachers of government, political science 
and governmental- accounting will come 
through this channel. I am particularly 
anxious to see the hope realized because 
for the ordinary academically inbred col- 
lege professor this job of really and prac- 
tically training men for the public service 
is just a wee bit too much of a strain. 
Your help would very much lighten his 
burden. 

Training Men for the Public Service 

And now with reference to men who 
wish to prepare for public service. The 
case is very well put by the Mayor of 
New York, then president of the Board 
of Aldermen: 

"My own experiene, both as commis- 
sioner of accounts and in my present of- 
fice, has convinced me that the type of 
man qualified by training, experience, na- 
tive ability and initiative to perform the 
work of even minor subordinate positions 
in the city government is so rare as to be 
practically unobtainable. While it has 
been possible to find men, for instance, in 
the field of accountancy, with thoroughly 
satisfactory technical training and with 
sufficient native ability, they have lacked 
both experience in municipal business and 
the point of view which comes only by 
contact with governmental problems and 
association with men of progressive ideas.'* 

He formulates the remedy thus: 

"From my own university experience 
and my later experience in public office, 
may I point out that the universities can- 



172 



The Public Servant 



[February 



not fill the demand for this particular kind 
of training. I believe that university pro- 
fessors themselves would be the first to ad- 
mit that they have as yet neither the liter- 
ature for teaching facts of government nor 
the facts from which such literature can 
be prepared. My own conviction is that 
it will never be possible to so organize in- 
struction in universities that it will fit men 
to do the work of municipal or even of 
state officials or employees, or of civil 
leaders. To accomplish that training, 
field work of the kind done so effectively 
by the Bureau of Municipal Research and 
by the commissioner of accounts is abso- 
lutely necessaiy. University courses in 
statistics, political theories or political 
economy are, of course, the desirable 
foundation of future efficiency and admin- 
istrative ability, but by themselves fall far 
short of the essential equipment for public 
service. Many men have come to me as 
applicants for appointment, possessing all 
of these qualifications and some with the 
added advantage of a training in law or 
accountancy, but who were as ignorant of 
the practical problems of city government 
and as incapable of performing the day- 
to-day tasks of municipal investigation or 
administration as is the average dry goods 
merchant to undertake the problem of 
railroad administration. -Field worfy, the 
experience gathered by day-to-day con- 
tact with the business facts of government, 
can alone thoroughly equip the man whose 
general education and training have al- 
ready supplied the preparatory equipment. 
Without them a man may learn theories 
of government and the principles of ad- 
ministration, but will lack the experience 
and training without which efficiency in 
service cannot be achieved." 

Field training is an essential means for 
training for the public service. When it 
is so carried on it is permeated with a 
sense of reality and is efficient. 

Again we are faced by the fact that 
the opportunity to serve through practical 
training for public service is up to you. 
Will you avail yourself of the opportun- 
ity? 

With your co-operation there can be 
practical training for public service; with- 
out it only the present uncoordinated, theo- 



retical non-functioning forms of education. 
The great opportunity is not the universi- - 
ties or other educational institutions but 
yours. 

How You Might Co-operate 

What are you going to do about it? 

What can you do? 

Individually, you can begin or make 
more effective present plans for training 
men in the service. 

You can co-operate with universities 
who begin to see the present social obliga- 
tion that rests upon them and who would 
welcome some light from men who are 
close to the facts. But after you prom- 
ise co-operation and work is begun, don't 
expect too much from the professors of 
political science, for, with some exceptions, 
they do not know very much about the 
practical administration of government. 
You may have to educate them, too. Ac- 
cept the opportunity and be grateful that 
you are having a chance to influence the 
education of thousands of youths, even if 
it be only indirectly. 

Regard it also as an opportunity to be 
permitted to give direction to young men 
who are beginning their courses in the pub- 
lic service. Teach them the technique of 
their jobs by all means, but teach them 
also its social responsibilities. Make them 
see, to use the language of the motto of 
THE PUBLIC SERVANT. There 
can be no higher ambition than that of 
serving the state (or city), nothing more 
creditable than to sei-ve it well." 

And both of the organizations here 
present might very appropriately appoint 
committees to co-operate with university 
departments and schools of commerce and 
finance, with faculty committees, and par- 
ticularly with the Committee of Field 
Work of the Association of Urban Uni- 
versities, of which President Parke R. 
Kolbe, of the Municipal University of 
Akron, is chairman. You can help par- 
ticularly by bringing to the agencies men- 
tioned above the sense of reality of the 
shop. Name a committee and it will dis- 
cover opportunities for service which we 
can hardly see beforehand. 

Will you avail yourself of this oppor- 
tunity? 



£be public Servant 

' ' There can be no higher ambition than that of serving the state, nothing more creditable than to serve it well. 



Vol. 2. No. 2 
Whole No. 1 2 



Issued Monthly except July and August, by the 

Society for the Promotion ot Training for Public Service 

Madison, Wisconsin 



Mar., 1917 



^:illl!|lll!l!llll!llll!!l!lllllllll!llllll!llll!llllll!lll!l!llN 

| To | 

| Senator Byron Barwig j 

| Assemblyman William T. Evjue ' > | 

public servants, members of the Wisconsin legislature of 1917, authors j 

of bills providing for the establishment of a training school for public j 

j service at the University of Wisconsin, this number of | 

| The Public Servant j 

is dedicated because of their initiative, vision and practical good sense j 

| in leading the way to the constructive period of the movement for train- j 

| ing for public service. 1 

^niiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin 



HP HE problem of him who desires to establish a University 
School for Public Service Training will not be to devise 
new methods and applications of education, but to coordinate 
and to apply to his purpose the forces and tendencies which the 
last decade has brought into existence. — Parke R. Kolbe, Presi- 
dent. University of Akron. 



174 



The Public Servant 



[March 



Zhe public Servant 

EDWARD A. FITZPATRICK, Editor 

Issued Monthly by the 
S. P. T. P. S. 
Madison, Wis. 



Board of Trustees 
Charles McCarthy .... Madison, Wis. 

F. G. Young: Eusrene Oregon 

Winston Churchill .... Cornish, N. H. 
Clarence G. McDavitt . . . Boston, Mass. 

Will C. Hogg Houston, Texas 

Zona Gale Portage, Wis. 

Niel Grav, Jr Oswego, N. T. 

John S. Murdock . . . Providence, R. I. 

Parke R. Kolbe Akron, Ohio 

Charles M. Fassett . . . Spokane, Wash. 
Louis B. Wehle Louisville, Ky. 

Director 

Edward A. Fitzpatrick . . Madison, Wis. 



THE WISCONSIN BILLS 

The following are the two bills intro- 
duced into the Wisconsin legislature. 
Senator Barwig's bill was reported out; 
the Senate Committee on Education and 
Public Welfare by a vote of 5 to 2, and 
was ordered engrossed in the Senate on 
March 30 by a vote of 1 6 to 4. It is 
on the Senate Calendar for final passage 
for April i 1 . Assemblymen Evjue's bill 
is scheduled for hearing on the Education 
Committee of the Assembly for April 6, 
1917. 

The Bar wig Bill 

SECTION 1 . There is added to the 
statutes a new section to read. Section 
391. 1. The board of regents of the 
state university shall establish and mam- 
tain, beginning with the academic year 
1918 — 1919, a training school for pub- 
lic service. Such school shall be a pro- 
fessional school and shall be devoted to 
practical training for the service of the 
state of Wisconsin or of any county or 
municipality therein,' or of civic organiza- 
tions. 

2. A full professor of public admini- 
stration shall be appointed for service at 
the beginning of the academic year, 1917 
— 1918. Such professor shall be the 
dean of the training school, for public ser- 
vice. Under the direction of the presi- 
dent and the regents of the university such 
dean shall work out appropriate courses 
of study, requirements for admission, con- 



ditions for graduation, character and sup- 
ervision of field training and other educa- 
tional and administrative problems relat- 
ing to such school. The department of 
education, or any department of the uni- 
versity, shall assist in such work. 

3. Persons who have satisfactorily 
completed the work required in the train- 
ing school for public service shall, upon 
graduation, receive a proper university de- 
gree and a diploma in public administra- 
tion stating the particular character of 
their training. No person shall receive 
such diploma unless at least one-third of 
his total credits in such school shall be for 
actual work in municipal, county, or state 
departments or in quasi-public work and 
unless he shall have submitted a thesis 
dealing with an actual problem of munici- 
pal, county, or state service based on 
actual service or in contact with such ser- 
vice and approved by the head of the de- 
partment of such municipality, county or 
state with which such problem is princi- 
pally concerned. 

4. Any member of the faculty of the 
university of Wisconsin may be required, 
under rules prescribed by the regents, to 
give instruction in such school. 

5. Such school shall provide adequate 
supplementary training for persons now in 
county, municipal or state service. 

Section 2. This act shall take 
effect upon passage and publication. 

The Evjue Bill 

SECTION 1 . There is added to the 
statutes a new section to read: Section 
39 1 . There shall be established at the 
university of Wisconsin in the academic 
year, 1918 — 19, a training school for 
public service to be called the Richard 
T. Ely School for Public Service. This 
school shall be a professional school 
requiring two years' college work for 
entrance and shall have a university status 
similar to the law school. it shall be de- 
voted to training men and women for the 
service of the state of Wisconsin and for 
service in the cities of the state by practi- 
cal training methods. 

The regents of the University are here- 
by authorized to make such rules and reg- 
ulations as will carry out the provisions of 
this act. 



1917] The Case for Public Service Training \75 

Practical and Specific Training or Men for 

Public Service 

WHY? 
The Case for Public Service Training 

"There can be no higher ambition than that of 
serving the state, nothing more creditable than to 
serve it Well." 

When we speak of training for public service we, of course, mean the 
training of administrative officers; no i political officers like the governor or 
the legislators. "Political" in this sense has no suggestion of criticism or 
insinuation of evil. Political officers are those who decide what the city, 
county, state or nation shall do : the administrative officer s duty is to do it. 

A governor is not and ought not to be selected because of any specialized 
training for public service but because of his representative character. He 
and the other political officers are selected because they represent the com- 
mon sense, the intelligence and the wishes of the man-in-the-street — perhaps 
a little idealized. 

This is true of the legislator, too. Because of their number though they 
can better reflect the varied interests and the varied points of view of the 
community than even an Executive. A legislature of experts on legislation 
might possibly be better than the present representative legislatures, but its 
ultimate effects would be anything but desirable. The legislature is a rep- 
resentative agency. It is the safety valve of democracy. It must control 
the trained man in the public service. 

But once the legislature declares a policy, it ought to command in the 
public interest the best ability in the country trained to do the things the leg- 
islature wants done. It is to accomplish this end that the proposed bill is di- 
rected. 

This bill is concerned in no way with political questions. You can be for 
training for public service and be in favor or opposed to cabinet government.. 
You can be for training for public service and be in favor or opposed to the 
mayor plan of city government, the commission plan or the city manager 
plan. You can be in favor of any form of governmental organization but if 
your form of organization is really going to serve its purpose it must be in 
the hands of trained men. 

And so on the substantive issues you can be in favor or opposed to any 
one of the many propositions now before the legislature. But as explained 
above, once the decision is reached, its enforcement ought to be turned over 
to the best ability the state can command — and the state ought to see to it 
that such ability has been trained for its work and in its interest. 



176 The Public Servant [March 

I. The Situation 

Inefficient governmental administration costs too much 
It costs too much in money: — in public funds 
It costs too much in public welfare 

Inefficient administration costs too much, and this country is 
getting less and less money to throw away every year as 
population increases and resources are more and more 
tapped. Even if a municipality casts the inefficients out, it 
will now search for effectives to nil the places largely in 
vain. It can get honest 'men in plenty, no doubt. But 
something more is wanted, namely, knowledge, training. — 
Minneapolis Journal. 

The kind of expert that we need in a city is not merely the 
expert lawyer as a corporation counsel; it is not merely the 
expert physician as the health officer; not even the expert 
engineer as the builder of roads and bridges; but also the 
expert administrator. It is the man who knows how a 
great administrative body must be handled, who knows how 
to deal with the Aast amount of business to be transacted; 
for this cannot be done by anybody who happens to get the 
votes. It must be done by an expert. The administra- 
tion of a large city is one of the most complicated kinds of 
business which this country has to manage. It requires a 
knowledge of administrative machinery. It needs a man 
who knows how to organize bodies of men so that their 
work shall run smoothly, efficiently and economically. — 
A. IJawrence Lowell. 

Government will break down because of its burden unless some special pro- 
vision is made to enable it to meet the duties and responsibilities 

(a) Of the new powers given to it increasingly in these times 

(b) Of the increasing complexity of government 

In the days when Professor Gray's Uncle Bill stepped the logs 
and built his log house, a knowledge of architecture was 
not essential for his immediate, practical purpose. But 
when you build a Metropolitan Tower, a Singer Building, a 
Woolworth Building, you must know something of the prin- 
ciples of architecture and their practical application, else 
the thing goes wrong. — P. P. Claxton. 

(c) Of the delicate and subtle questions with which it has to deal 

Incompetency in government brings greater suffering to the 
people than incompetency in any other field. There is no 
other business so difficult as the business of government. 
There is no business in which aptitude, ability, trained ex- 
pertness is so important; no business that should be so at- 
tractive to young men to enter into; and it should get the 
cream of the young men of the nation because it is the most 
important and difficult business of the nation. — S. S. Mc- 
Clure. 

I do know that no people have ever lived in this world under a 
feeble government. That thing has never been tried out, 
because if the legal government organized by the people is 
feeble then there always exists by its side an expert illegal 
government that does actual work of governing. — S. S. 
McClure. 



1917] The Case for Public Service Training 177 

We are beginning- to see that lawmaking must be followed by law enforce- 
ment 

(a) Law-making must and should always be done by men selected 

because of their representative character 

(b) Law enforcement, i. e., administration is non-political and is pri- 

marily the work of trained men 

Many good measures and many good laws are falling into dis- 
repute because of the lack of specially prepared officials 
to carry them out. In this we are deficient in all depart- 
ments of public service, but the deficiency is most notice- 
able in administration officials. — Frank W. Blackmar. 

The remedy is in a trained public service 

Improving the governmental machine itself helps a little 
Centralizing and combining helps some times 

But the question is in the final analysis, as has often been discovered in 
business, a question of men. 

One can't govern by divine inspiration though that seems to be 
the idea some people have. They seem to think that, inas- 
much as we have erected a certain form of government, 
some benignant Higher Power will give to indolence and in- 
capacity and ignorance a revelation by which our paths 
will be straightened and our work directed and done. I 
am constantly having men urged on me for office who 
never had a real thought and never have done a real day's 
work. Both their sponsors and themselves seem to think 
they can run a sort of wireless tower up into the air, send 
out a C. Q. D. or an S. O. S. and receive full instructions 
from some vast somewhere that will enable them to hold 
their jobs. — Franklin K. Lane. 

Democracy is welcoming the trained men in the public service 

Because the machinery of popular control is becoming increasingly ef- 
fective 
The machinery for organizing public opinion is also improving 
Legislatures are developing means for the control of administrators and 
giving them greater power 
Educational opportunity is reaching more and more people in more and 
more ways It feels its opportunity is wherever people are to be edu- 
cated and there is social need for their education. It is opening up 
a way through continuation schools, short courses, correspondence 
schools and summer sessions. Training for public service must take 
into account this way as well as in the full time day schools. 



178 The Public Servant [March 

II. The Problem 

In the light of the situation as outlined above, the following questions 
suggest themselves: 

1 . Shall we train men specially to enable government to meet its 

many new and complex problems ? 

There was a time when we learned that that was the best state 
which governed least. In that older economy the agents 
of government were the soldier, the judge and the tax 
gatherer. There are those who still believe that these 
three functions comprise all that a state should undertake 
to do ; they are strangely indifferent to the actual life around 
them. So intimately has the state entered into the lives of 
the citizens that we find the physician, the engineer, the ac- 
countant, the teacher, I might say every modern type of 
worker, employed as its agent. — Albert Shiels. 

If one were to say that college graduates had been found unfit 
to take up at once the duties of preachers or lawyers or 
journalists or shoemakers or blacksmiths or chauffeurs or 
motormen or bookkeepers or any other calling requiring 
special preparation or training, we should all accept the 
statement as a matter of course. When it comes to serv- 
ing the public in any technical way, however, instead of any 
private concern, we seem to take it for granted that public 
servants, like Athena or Minerva, should spring full pan- 
oplied from the brow of Jupiter, in the college world.- — 
Free Press, (Burlington, Vt.) 

2. Shall this training be given in public educational institutions? 

. It seems to me in the first place that in stating this problem we 
want to realize that neither the university nor the govern- 
ment is the ultimate thing. That seems to me to make it 
very much easier for us to co-operate when we realize that 
the ultimate thing is the prosperity and welfare of the 
people back of us, and the people back of us, both agencies 
are trying to serve. — Morris Llewellyn Cooke. 

But why should we expect the college graduate to be able at 
once to perform expert service for the public any more than 
for the church or the bench or the bar or the press or the 
builder or the railroad or the steamship company? Why 
should we be surprised because he has to have special train- 
ing and experience in this one direction, when we make 
make these the essentials in practically every other caU for 
service? — Free Press (Burlington, Vt.) 

3. Can we really control these trained men in the interest of democ- 

racy ? 



1917] The Case for Public Service Training 1 79 

III. What Is Proposed 

Proposition I. The establishment of a training school for the public service 
at the University for the training of men and women for the service of 

The state of Wisconsin* 
Wisconsin counties 
Wisconsin municipalities 
Wisconsin civic organizations 

The practical question for Vermont [as for every state] in the 
meantime is whether it will have its university training so 
far as its means allow, or whether it shall turn out college 
graduates fitted for no special service., except possibly 
teaching, depending entirely on other states for all its spe- 
cial training — Free Press (Burlington, Vt.) 



This does not mean a new building. And if a system of supervised field 
training (i. e., learning by doing) is adopted, there will be no need for 
a building for this purpose in ten or even twenty-five years. A prohi- 
bition actually inserted in the bill that no appropriation for training 
for public service shall be expended for buildngs during the next ten 
years, or twenty-five for that matter, would be helpful, at least it could 
do no harm. 

This does not mean the piling up of new courses. But it does mean a re- 
direction and a re-organization of existing work at the University in 
the interest of the state and of its local governments. It will mean a 
more intimate relation between what is taught in the University and 
what is happening in the world. It will require some new courses, 
particularly in public administration— many of which the university 
ought now be giving. A mere combination of existing courses will not 
serve the purpose of this bill. 

This does not mean more and more professors. During the next biennium it 
means one professor during both years and an assistant for the second 
year. For the rest it means a utilization of the present university staff 
for a new university aim. 

Shall We Train For Everything But Public Service? 
Hindsight or Foresight 

Shall we train for everything else and not the public service? And yet 
it is into the hands of public servants that we put the regulation or direction 
of all the great economic and social agencies and conditions of modern com- 
munity life — railroads, street cars, factories, manufacturing, health, hours of 
labor, education, etc. Here is the dominating influence in modern life. 
Shall we leave it in the hands of the amateur? Shall we continue to train 
men only after they have entered the public service? We do it anyway at 
public expense and by a method that costs us very much more than it ought 

* Please substitute your own state instead of Wisconsin in this connection. 



180 The Public Servant [March 

in public funds and in public welfare. Why not do it more intelligently? 
Shall we have hindsight or foresight. 

We no longer believe in America today that a man who has 
shown himself fairly clever at something else, is thereby 
qualified to manage a railroad, a factory, or a bank. Are 
we better justified in assuming that an election by popular 
vote, or an appointment by a chief magistrate, confers, 
without apprenticeship, an immediate capacity to construct 
the roads and bridges direct the education, manage the 
finances, purify the water supply, or dispose of the sewage 
of a large city; and this when it is almost certain that the 
person selected will" not remain hi office long enough to 
leam thoroughly a business of which he knows httle or 
nothing at the outset? In industrial enterprise, in business 
concerns, the use of experts of all kinds is, indeed, con- 
stantly increasing. They have revolutionized some indus- 
tries, and are indispensable in many more. Nor do we 
merely seek for men who have gained experience in prac- 
tice. In one profession after another we have learned to 
train them carefully in the theory of their work, taking 
them young and educating them for it as a distinct career. 
Sixty years ago, for example, there Avas scarcely a school of 
applied science in the country, but now they are every- 
where, and they can hardly turn out students fast enough 
to supply the demand. They are ever adding new depart- 
ments, while our universities are creating new specialized 
schools, and thus adding to the number of professions. We 
are training men today for all services but that of the pub- 
lic. — A. Lawrence Lowell. 

Shall the University train for public Service? Is there any more obvious 
duty on a public educational institution than to train people in the in- 
terest of those who are paying the bills — the citizenship of the state ? 

In short, I heartily endorse the proposition now before us to 
combine the practical and the theoretical in our higher uni- 
versity life as the most practical proposition yet made to 
strengthen and improve our government all along the line, 
and to thus enable us to utilize our government for the ac- 
complishment of those economic, social, and political ends 
which must be achieved if the race is to make genuine prog- 
ress. — John H. Gray. 

Why train every sort of engineer except the city engineer? 

Why neglect every opportunity in th education of the lawyer to study and 
know practical governmental administration when the chances are not 
unlikely that he will be a public servant? 

Why not give students in the school of medicine those broader aspects of 
public health which every community is now studying and upon which 
it is anxious to have intelligent and informed advice? Why not give the 
engineer, the doctor or the lawyer the studies and field training in 
public administration which will make him a good administrator in pub- 
lic business or at least a co-operator with the public authorities? Such 
work would be most conveniently and economically carried out in a 
special agency like the proposed training school for public service. 

Need it be pointed out more definitely that in truth we are training men for 
all services but that of the public? 

Is there any more immediate duty and opportunity in the public interest than 
to train men for the public service? 



1917] The Case for Public Service Training 181 

Training Teachers 

We train teachers. Why not train other public servants? Is not every 
civic reason that may be advanced for the training of teachers equally ap- 
plicable for the training of other public servants? In the training of teach- 
ers every educational and administrative problem has been solved that will 
come up in the general training for the public service. 

Training Soldiers 

We train soldiers. We provide recruiting offices and officers and con- 
duct a nation-wide advertising campaign with the slogan: "The United 
States Army Wants Men." We provide a West Point for soldiers and an 
Annapolis for sailors. We provide definite ten year periods of training 
after the men enter the service. Why not make some slight provisions for 
the every day problems of government? Why not train for peace, too? 
Here, too, the experience in training soldiers will be helpful in devising ways 
to train pubic servants. 

What Will Become of These Trained Men? 

The great truth is that the supply will create the demand. But let us sup- 
pose this were not so. "What will become of these trained public ser- 
vants?" it is asked. They all cannot find places. Let us assume that 
there is an actual over-supply of trained men. We hope that will be 
so some day, though there is no immediate likelihood of its happening. 
Where will they get jobs? 

The way to increase a supply of trained talent in the service of 
the state is to train it. Supply must precede demand. 
Meeting and resolving that the public ought to he served 
by experts rather than by political henchmen does nothing 
to improve the civil service. If, on the other hand, the 
state makes ample provision in its university for training 
men in the problems of administration, the first step has 
been accomplished. — Edward A. Ross. 

An over-supply in the near future in unlikely because of the expanding 
functions of government and its present inability to meet adequately 
even existing demands upon it. In city government we shall in this 
state soon add to the commission-governed cities, city-manager cities. 
When that happens there will be an enormous demand for the trained 
man in the public service, and there is very little danger of over-supply. 

"But in case of over-supply where will these men get jobs?" it may be 
asked .again. In the first place in related business. This is true whether 
there is the assumed over-supply, or it proves government or public 
opinion is not quite ready (or appreciative) of special ability. And 
notice the enormous gain to the public. Men will then go into busi- 
ness intelligently informed on government' s relation to business, and 
saturated with the public point of view steadied by the civic and social 
ideals of his training. 

And if appropriate opportunity did not come in private business, the multi- 



182 The Public Servant [March 

farious civic and quasi-public agencies which are increasing so fast of- 
fer splendid opportunity for trained ability and at salaries frequently 
higher than are paid in the public service. Immediately this is the most 
promising field and offers in itself motive enough for establishing such 
training at the University. 

Business and a Trained Public Service 

The public regulation of business was inevitable. However, the influ- 
ence of the doctrinaire, of the demogague, will be less and less as we clearly 
perceive that the welfare of business and of society generally rests on two 
things: a scientific basis of the public regulation of business and a trained 
public service to administer carefully drawn laws in accordance with and 
on the basis of demonstrable fact. Business can be adequately regulated 
and controlled in the interest of society when these two things are integral 
parts of our public administration. These two things are possible only with 
a trained public service. 

Disinterested business, business that wants fair play and a square deal will 
Welcome intelligence and training on the part of those who are to ex- 
ercise in the name of American democracy control or supervision over 
the vast business interests of the country. The welfare of the whole 
business structure depends to a very great degree on the relation of 
government to it. The welfare of business depends on making govern- 
mental administration intelligent and efficient. This is possibe only 
with a trained public service. 

The best of the nien in highly organized, private corporations 
now understand that they have more to fear from the hasty 
and harsh actions of demagogues and politicians than from 
exact determination of the facts by highly trained servants 
of the public— Charles McCarthy. 



Proposition 2. That training for public service shall be conducted by field 
training methods so that theory and practice may be co-ordinated in 
the effective education of public servants. 

The Academic Method Unsuitable 

The academic method with its theorizing, its lecturing, its "inconsequential 
bookishness" will never secure really effective training. 

"In this new educational movement another step must be taken 
— that of educating college authorities to the real nature of 
work in the social sciences. We are asked to interpret the 
life around us, asked to interpret it but of books which are 
antiquated before their ink is dry. We must demand 
greater opportunity to study our phenomena at first hand. — 
Report of Committee of Three on the Teaching of Econom- 
ics in U. S. 

The present studies in the universities will have to be changed in many cases 
in their content and will have to be directed to meet actual situations. 



91 7] The Case for Public Service Training 183 

Practice must be enlightened by theory; theory must be reinforced, 
adapted and revised by practice supplemented by reflection. 

I realize that instruction dissociated froni practical application 
lends itself to more pleasing, logical treatment, but I some- 
times think that this all inclusive logical arrangement of 
material, in being dissociated from life is apt to fail in giv- 
ing significance to learning. — Albert Shiels. 



Field Training- Necessary 

Whatever may be true of general education, in vocational training (or if 
you prefer, professional training) knowledge must have some relation 
to action. Knowledge must be of use. It is well established that edu- 
cation and instruction are most effective when knowledge and experi- 
ence are constantly being related and inter-acting. This is the educa- 
tional basis for field training. 

The proposition for practical training for public service while 
the students are still in the university seems to me one of 
the most practical and hopeful educational suggestions of 
the day.— John H. Gray, University of Minnesota. 

We must, however, recognize the extreme risks in theoretic 
teaching unless linked with thorough instruction in the con- 
crete. That is more than a corrective, or safeguard against 
erratic speculation. It is a positive preparation for the 
world of life, and a discipline in the tasks that await the 
student. — New York Times. 

Field training is merely another name for learning by doing, but it is learn- 
ing by doing not in the artificial environment of school or college, but 
in the actual conditions of life with its actual problems and its immedi- 
ate needs for solution. 

The training which has heretofore been lacking is training 
through field work, through experience gathered by day to 
day contact with the business facts of government. Men 
should study at first hand the mechanism of government, 
the actual way in which the work is done, the way in which 
the accounts of cities are kept or not kept, the kind of work 
which a man must do who addresses himself to the im- 
provement of existing conditions. 

But merely "learning by doing," though more effective than learning by 
"listening to lectures or being quizzed," is in itself a slow process and 
a costly process. It is evident in the proverb that "experience is a 
dear teacher." 

The best educational result is secured when the experience is selected and 
when it is correlated with related instruction. These are the essential 
conditions of effective field training. 

It is evident without argument that the high degree of effi- 
ciency required to meet the growing complexity of govern- 
mental activities, can best be obtained by selecting persons 
of reasonably demonstrated fitness for the service, training 
them in the actual work, and supplementing their training 
with an equal amount of co-ordinated instruction and re- 
search. — Herman Schneider. 



184 The Public Servant [March. 

Supervision Necessary- 
Universities may have forms of field training — but they are ineffective. The 
working fellowships by means of which students spent a half day at 
the University and a half day in unsupervised work at the Capitol in 
one of the commissions at a nominal compensation was a recognition 
of the field training principle, but that is all. The students were sent 
to the Capitol, but so far as the University was concerned they might 
have been sweeping the floor, or opening letters or running errands. 
The University was not interested in the students when they were at 
the Capitol. There was no supervision by the University of the work 
of these students, and educational results were accidental so far as the 
University was concerned.* 

The problem, it seems to me, is how to get some definite work- 
ing co -ordination and correlation between the thoretical in- 
struction and the field work, for merely having both of them 
does not insure their real interaction. — John Dewey. 



This field training is a new form of apprenticeship if one cares to put it that 
way. And no apprenticeship can ever be successful unless the ap- 
prentice is guaranteed the opportunity of educative experience and 
there is s*ome effective supervision to see that the opportunity is actually 
given. 

In this manner, while one is taking his thorough training in the 
university, he may also be serving his actual apprentice- 
ship in the public administration. Then when he cuts 
loose from the university he will be enabled to do a man's 
work in the public administration in our highly complex 
and difficult civilization, and not only to hold his own with 
the untrained men, but to apply to the public administra- 
tion, in some measure at least, that high degree of philo- 
sophical training and of technical knowledge combined that 
the material development and large financial rewards have 
called out in the Avhole realm of business and professional 
life. — John H. Gray, University of Minnesota. 



University Credit Must Be given For Field Training- 
Some universities have the queer notion that only work in the class-room 
ought to be credited toward graduation. Fortunately this peculiar 
educational sanctity about university classrooms is being seriously ques- 
tioned and being denied even by universities — a few universities. But 
the only way that you can secure continuous university interest in field 
training is to require that university credit be given for it. If the uni- 
versity gives credit for field work it will want to know about its char- 
acter, the conditions under which it is performed, the nature of super- 
vision — all information, in fact, that will enable it to decide the amount 
of credit to be given. With, therefore, the requirement that university 
credit be given, you have made university interest necessary. Without 
the credit requirements the thing usually degenerates into routine work. 

*While this was going through the press the University of Wisconsin, has put its 
working fellowship on a proper basis as to credit for field training and supervision of 
field training, — the defects previously noted. 



1917] The Case for Public Service Training 185 

The student is working for credit, and so far as the university goes the 

credit is a measure of his success. 

Should the Legislature Make Field Training Mandatory? 
Unquestionably. 
It is the only certain way to get it, in these early stages of the movement for 

a trained public service. 
The authority of the legislature to do it is, presumably, undoubted. 
The whole tendency of university education is bookish — and self-sufficient. 

The only effective way to guarantee the continuing operation of the 

effective corrective of field training is to make it mandatory by law. 

The Advantages of Field Work 
There are certain very evident advantages. 

Is genuinely educative. The first advantage is that field training is vitally 
and effectively educative in a sense that the academic method can 
never be by itself. 

By doing his share in the associated activity, the individual 
appropriates the purpose which actuates it, becomes fa- 
milar with its methods and subject matters, acquires 
needed skill, and is saturated with its emotional spirit. — 
John Dewey. 

Saves equipment. The utilization of the offices and services of the public 
service itself and of civic organizations makes the need for elaborate 
equipment and laboratories inside of the universities unnecessary. 

Enables University to serve more students in the same space. It makes it 
possible to serve a great many more students than is possible on the 
full-time arrangement. If students are in the field at least one-third of 
the time (which should be the minimum) that makes it possible in the 
same class-room space to serve one-third more students than under or- 
dinary methods. 

Makes and education possible to some who could not otherwise get it.Students 
in the training school for public service ought to be paid for their field 
work. This would enable students the better to secure an education. 
This could be easily arranged in civic organizations and has been 
admirably arranged for in the Los Angeles Civil service. 

Guarantee of reality of tasks. The insistence that students shall be paid 
for field work ( 1 ) places a definite responsibility upon the student, 
and (2) makes the field agency give him real work and demand real 
service. It is a means of guaranteeing the reality and actuality of the 
tasks of the students. 



186 ' The Public Servant [March 

IV. Some Existing Arrangements For University 
Training For Public Service 

Division of Municipal Administration and Public Service, School of 
Applied Sciences, Western Reserve University 

The purpose of this division is to train men for administrative work in the 
public service and for secretarial work in civic agencies. 

Academic courses are re-adjusted and adapted to the new needs. 

The work as now planned covers a period of two years; all courses are dis- 
tinctly professional in character and have a practical outlook. 

The school is practically on a graduate basis, though "persons of liberal 
education and practical experience, who are at least twenty years of 
age, will be admitted to paticular courses in which they have special 
interest, without reference to the attainment of a degree. It is required 
that they present evidence of exceptional ability to pursue the course 
of study which they select and that they give satisfactory reasons for 
their selection." 

"A distinguishing feature is responsible field work, conducted for its edu- 
cational value, under the close supervision of members of the faculty 
who have had practical experience in positions of responsibility in mu- 
nicipal administration." 

Some striking features of the field work are : 

"Field work is required of all candidates for a degree." 
"The curriculum is planned for a schedule of fifteen hours per week 
and for purposes of schedule-making three hours of supervised and 
carefully planned field work is regarded as the equivalent of one hour 
of classroom work." 

"The student will be able to secure as much as THREE-FIFTHS of his 
training in practical work." 

"Visits for purposes of observation and attendance a t committee hearings, 
meetings of legislative bodies or civic agencies may be required in 
addition to the schedule field work." 

"Practical training of this nature is offered in connection with the depart- 
ments of government of the City of Cleveland, the County of Cuya- 
hoga and the State of Ohio, the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, the 
Civic League of Cleveland, the City Club and other civic agencies." 

Public Service Division of the College of Commerce and Administration — 
University cf Chicago The official announcement outlines the 

kind of work for which the Division prepares its students : 

"The Public Service Division, for those expecting to serve as staff 
members in bureaus of labor, in tax commissions, in public utility com- 
missions; as statisticians; as workers in efficiency bureaus; as investi- 
gators for special inquiries under federal, state, municipal, or private 
authority, etc." 
An important "feature" of the work is: 

"Contact with practical affairs. The method of the advanced 
courses is professional and practical. Use is made of the case method 



1917] The Case for Public Service Training 187 

of instruction, and class work is supplemented with lectures by experts 
on technical subjects. Further contact with actual conditions is 
secured by requiring that each student spend the equivalent of three 
months, preceding or accompanying his professional training, in field 
work." 

School for Health Officers — Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology "The principal object of the School is to prepare 

young men for public health work; especially to fit them to occupy 
administrative and executive positions, as health officers, or members of 
boards of health, or secretaries, agents, or inspectors of health organi- 
zations. To this end, lectures, laboratory work, and other forms of in- 
struction are offered by both institutions, and by special instructors 
from national, state, and local health agencies. The subjects em- 
braced in the courses of study have been selected to cover a wide range, 
including medical, biological, hygienic, and engineering sciences, to- 
gether with practical health administration." 

"The opportunities for the practical study of the arts of public sanitation 
offered to students of the School for Health Officers are exceptional. 
The city of Boston is an important port of entry for foreign and domes- 
tic shipping and for immigration, and has fift}' or more separate and 
independent municipalities in its immediate vicinity, while the state of 
Massachusetts is a community which has long been recognized as 
standing in the forefront of American commonwealths in all aspects of 
the science and practice of public health. To the advantages of 
location are added all the resources of Harvard University and the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology." 

"Special students not candidates for the Certificate in Public Health who 
desire to fit themselves for some special field will be admitted to the 
School and may take any course or courses for which they are pro- 
perly qualified, on approval of the Administrative Board." 

"While the medical degree is not a prerequisite for the Certificate in Public 
Health, candidates are advised to obtain the medical degree, if possi- 
ble, before specializing in public health work. Experience teaches 
that preferment for employment and advancement to the higher 
positions comes more readily to those who have a medical degree." 

Courses in Municipal Administration — University of Michigan General 

statement. "The University of Michgan offers the degree of Master 
of Arts (or Master of Science) in Municipal Administration upon 
completion of the program of required studies in that field. The mini- 
mum period of instruction entails one year of work in the Graduate 
School and three months of field work under the direction of the Com- 
mittee. A second graduate year will be necessary, unless a number 
of the prescribed courses have been taken as undergraduate studies." 

Purpose "The object of the course is to train in administration. It is 
intended to develop capacity for the direction of municipal work 



188 The Public Servant [March 

rather than technical fitness for the actual performance of any portion 
of it. To take the single field of accounting for illustration, the object 
is not to produce an expert accountant, but to train in the clear com- 
prehension of the purposes and methods of municipal accounting, and 
in the knowledge necessary for the consideration of technical account- 
ing problems. A man would thus be equipped to direct the engergies 
of an accounting force to the production of results most conducive to 
the public interest. The general aim is to promote expertness in em- 
ploying the technical means to the public and in very field of municipal 
activity." 

Utility. "The program of courses is designed to meet the needs of all those 
who aim to take an active part in the guidance of municipal affairs. 
It should be of greatest utility in training for municipal office, whether 
of bureau, division or department head, of mayor, or director under the 
commission form of city government, or of city manager ; and for such 
public or semi-public positions as director of bureaus of municipal 
reference and research or as civic and commercial secretary. Oppor- 
tunities for permanent careers are now open in the semi-public positions 
and are becoming more and more definitely recognized in the strictly 
public service." 

School of Government — University of Texas The University of Texas has 
arranged its courses into six groups to correspond with the six main di- 
visions of municipal administration. These groups are: 
Public Safety and Welfare — "This group looks toward the training 
of men for such positions as commissioner of public safety and 
welfare, comprising the police and fire departments and the furth- 
erance of social welfare," 
Public Finance — "This group aims to provide training for such posi- 
tions as commissioner of finance, auditor and comptroller." 
Public Education — "This group contemplates the preparation 
adapted to fit men for the position of commissioner of education 
or superintendent of city schools." 
Public Law — "The work of this group is intended to prepare men for 

the position of city attorney." 
Municipal Engineering — "This group looks to the training of city en- 
gineers, who must, of course, be primarily civil engineers." 
Public Health — "As the work in the medical department is required 
throughout it will be necessary for the prospective health officer 
to do the special work adapted to his purposes before entering the 
department at Galveston." 



1917] The Case for Public Service Training 189 

V. Some Proposed University Organizations For 
Training For Public Service 

Columbia University and the College of the City of New York These two 
institutions have proposed practically the same course. As worded by 
the Committee of the College of the City of New York the recom- 
mendations for immediate action are: 

" ( 1 ) That there be appointed at the College a Director of Public 
Service Training. It shall be the duty of this officer to keep a 
record of all municipal positions which are open to college stu- 
dents, and the subjects and dates of approaching examinations. 
He shall also establish at the Capitol in co-operation with the 
Municipal Civil Service Commission an intelligence office or 
clearing house for civil service positions, and he shall be prepared 
to advise students as to the course and methods to be pursued 
in preparation for such positions. He shall confer with the 
civil service commissioners and chief examiners as to the relation 
between college instruction and civil service as to examinations, 
standards, credit for field work and eligibility. The Director of 
Public Service Training shall also confer with the heads of city 
departments and bureaus with regard to their needs and the abil- 
ity of the College to supply them. 
"(2) That a College Standing Committee on Public Service Train- 
ing be appointed to co-operate and advise with the Director. 
Such a committee should have among its membership representa- 
tives of the departments most concerned in the technical training 
of those who will enter public service. 
"(3) That the announcements of the several divisions of the Col- 
lege contain a statement of the scope and work of the Committee 
on Public Service Training. 
"(4) That provision be made for co-operation of the College with 
such unofficial public agencies as the Training School for Pub- 
lic Service and the Bureau of Municipal Research, especially 
with a view to the possibility of exchange of students, exchange 
of credit. 
"(5) That the special courses to be recommended and their formal 
organization be immediately taken up by the Director of Public 
Service Training with his Committee and all other departments 
and agencies involved." 

University of Oregon, School of Commonwealth Service — We have asked 
Professor Edward Clyde Robbins to give us for publication in "The 
Public Servant" a full statement of the proposed School for Common- 
wealth Service at the University of Oregon. We are omitting, there- 
fore, in this connection any statement regarding this proposed remark- 
able school. 



190 The Public Servant [March 

VL Questions That Are Sometimes Asked 

Isn't it Undemocratic. 
It isn't. 
The fundamental democratic conception and practice of our government is 

unaffected by a trained public service. 
But there is placed at the disposal of democracy and in its interest the most 

effective agency in the world — a trained and disciplined human brain. 

Democracy more than any other form of government needs the 
very best instruments which can he used. What should we 
say of our country if it refused to use for public work mod- 
ern machinery and inventions? Democracy needs the best 
machinery tnat can De found, the best tools that can be 
discovered; and the best tool that the world has ever yet 
produced is a highly trained human brain. — A. Lawrence 
Lowell. 

When we shall have begun to train some real public servants 
who are able to do something practical in government, we 
shall have taken the longest single step to make democracy 
successful and enable it to hold the balance of power be- 
tween conflicting groups and individuals, so that there shall 
be justice for all and injustice for none. By some such 
step, only, shall we be able to drive corruption, and still 
more dangerous inefficiency, from our public service. — 
John H. Gray, University of Minnesota. 

How Is the Trained Public Servant Going to Be Controlled 
in the Public Interest? 

The machinery for the discharge of unfaithful, incompetent and inefficient 
public servants is simple and effective. 

Government must be so organized that responsibility of political officers for 
service and funds is definitely fixed. 

The legislature must take seriously its responsibility for control over admin- 
istrative departments, and requests for funds must be tied up with 
searching inquiry into the activity of departments during previous fiscal 
periods. 

In the governmental departments the trained men must report to and con- 
vince the not specially trained but represntative political officer or lay 
board of the wisdom of and the applicability of his findings and de- 
cisions. 

But you must control the expert. I am one of those who be- 
lieve that the best results in every undertaking can be 
brought about only by a combination of the expert and the 
. layman. I do not care what subject you are dealing with, 
if you do not have an expert on the one side, and a board 
representing the public on the other, the management is not 
likely to be permanently satisfactory. A railroad company, 
for example, must have a railroad man as president, and a 
board of directors which keeps him in touch with the pub- 
lic. That principle is applicable everywhere in industrial 
companies, in charitable Or educational institutions, and in 
public affairs. — A. Lawrence L/owell. 



1917] The Case for Public Service Training 191 

Would This Create on Office-Holding* Class? Hardly! 

An office-holding class of political officers should be severely condemned. 
The political officers should change as often as there are decided 
changes in the public opinion of the state. 

But men in the administrative and technical offices of government (in whom 
very little or no discretion is vested) ought to be comparatively perma- 
nent and ought to be continued in office as long as they render efficient 
service in the public interest. 

• Moreover, my experience is that membership in an expert pro- 
fession has a certain steadying influence based upon the 
general opinion of the profession itself. It is a curious fact 
but you will find it generally true. — A. Lawrence Lowell. 

The result of a supply of trained men in government properly organized is 
not an "office-holding" class, but a fairly continuous, efficient service 
in government departments. 

We have public servants today. The number would not be seriously af- 
fected by a supply of specially trained men — if anything, the number 
would be reduced because of greater efficiency. The only question 
raised by the training for public service bills is : Shall the public ser- 
vants be specially trained? 
Will public servants be any more of a class because of their training than 

doctors, engineers, business men are because of their training? 
If government is properly organized, then it will provide for two things — 
(1 ) a trained man dealing immediately with the problems under (2) 
the direction and control of men who are representative of the public, 
i. e., the governor and heads of departments and ultimately the legis- 
lature. Trained men should always be required to convince not- 
specially-trained men, who are representative of the people as to their 
findings, etc. 

Note: -The Wisconsin Assembly the other day in refusing to give 
power to the state health officer to make final decision but required action 
by the state board of health is a good illustration of proper administration 
and of the subordination of trained men to representatives of the public, 
who, by the way, represent common sense rather than special training. 

The question of whether an office-holding class will be created is not a ques- 
tion relating to the training of men but to the organization of the 
public service, which is finally a question of the legislature and the 
political officers like the governor and the heads of departments. 

The civil service must be classified so as to permit a man coming in at the 
bottom to attain to the highest positions in the public service — and edu- 
cational opportunity ought to be provided to help him reach the top. 
The way ought also to be open for trained men in private business and 
civic organizations to enter the public service at each level. Both of 
these would prevent any hardening of the arteries of public service. 



192 The Public Servant [March 

How Is the Public Service Going to Hold These Trained Men? 

1 . Suppose it doesn't — and these men are really trained for public service 

and have the public interest at heart. 
The presence of such men in private business will help the public serv- 
ice and will secure better co-operation of business with govern- 
ment. 

2. Public service can hold these men if it treats them as private business 

does — and it has the additional appeal of performing public serv- 
ice. 

Public service must pay men adequately. It will not need to pay them 
as much as business does, but it ought not to treat them niggardly 
because of their "good will." 

Public service like private business must look after the welfare, con- 
tinued training and opportunity for promotion of its employees 
and officers. 

3. We must give public recognition to distinguished public service, and 

we must in the schools and elsewhere, teach the opportunities and 
the responsibilities of public office and public employments. Peo- 
ple must be disillusioned on the view that public employment is 
a matter of political pull, of soft snaps, or "reporting at ten 
o'clock and leaving at three." And wherever public employment 
is still a part of political spoils it must be corrected. 



WILL YOU ENLIST 

in the movement to make government prepared for ALL 
situations? 

Unpreparedness for war has revealed to us our amazing 
unpreparedness for peace. 

Why not definitely help the movement for a trained per- 
sonnel in government so that government can meet its day- 
to-day necessities as well as the extraordinary situations of 
war? 

Why not now fill out the blank below 
and send it along? 

THE PUBLIC SERVANT 



Society for the Promotion of Training for Public Service 
Box 380, Madison, Wisconsin 

Enclosed please find $__ for which enroll me as a 

member of the S. P. T. P. S. for the year ending December, 1916. Please send me 
The Public Servant regularly. 

Name 



tCbe [public Servant 

"There can be no higher ambition than that of serving the state, nothing more creditable than to serve it well. " 



Vol. 2, No. 3-4 

Whole No. 

13-14 



Issued Monthly except July and August, by the 

Society for the Promotion ot Training for Public Service 



Madi 



Wis 



April-May 
1917 



/ 



March 8, 191f.O / 



Hon. Byron Earwig, Oswego, N. Y. 

Senate Chamber* 

Madison, Wis. 

~i0- \ Z 
Dear Sir:— Acknowledging your courteous favor of the 3d instant^, 

the next niost important step in the betterment of living conditions 

for all of us is doing the business of our cities better. 

The chief reason for the association of individuals and their homes 
in groups which are called cities is that the general necessities of 
life be cheaper and better provided by each one contributing toward 
the general fund to be expended for good water, good streets, educa- 
tion, sanitation, etc. 

The measure of the success of this association of individuals is the 
intelligence with which the fund is expended. 

In any field of action the trained servant is more successful and 
efficient and happier than the untrained, and the desirability of train- 
ing public servants goes without saying, it is merely a matter of com- 
mon sense, and a condition in which we all agree that we should have 
better trained public servants. 

As to the practicability of training servants for public service, there 
is not the slightest question. It is merely a matter of going to it and 
doing it. 

It is most gratifying to see that the Wisconsin Senate Bill No. 208, 
S., which you have endorsed, will again set the state of Wisconsin 
in the lead of intelligent administration, and I congratulate you and 
your associates for the opportunity thus presented to take another 
step forward in this most important matter of municipal adminis- 
tration. 

There is an old and good saying that if you would improve the 
municipality, improve that portion of it which is contained in your 
own epidermis first. If Amerca is to play its proper part in the 
rehabilitation of the nations, it is imperative that it first look to its 
own needs and deficiencies before it attempts to teach the world how. 

With sincere wishes for the successful outcome of this legislation, 
and thanking you for your courtesy in permitting me to see this bill, 

Yours Aery truly, 

NIELi GRAY, Jr. 




gllllHUIIIUIlUrilM 

Wax will bring out in a spectacular way the inefficiency of 
our public administraton. After-the-war will test it to the 
straining", perhaps to the breaking, point, 

Should we translate the opinion herein expressed into ac- 
1 tion? 1 



-jniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin^ 



!llllllll!!!llll!iiiii!i[iilii!!::ii!i!i::ii! ■i'iiu'i, i'lniiiiiiiiifliillillillllllllllltir 



194 



The Public Servant 



[April-May 



Ube public Servant 

EDWARD A. FITZPATRICK, Editor 
Issued Monthly by the 




Madison, WI». 



Board of Trustees 
Charles McCarthy .... Madison, Wis. 

F. G. Young Eugene Oregon 

Winston Churchill .... Cornish, N. H. 
Clarence G. McDavitt . . . Boston, Mass. 
Will C. Hogg . . . . . Houston, Texas 

Zona Gale Portage, Wis. 

Niel Gray, Jr Oswego, N. Y. 

John S. Murdock . . . Providence, R. I. 

Parke R. Kolbe Akron, Ohio 

Charles M. Fassett . . . Spokane, Wash. 
Louis B. Wehle ...... Louisville, Ky. 

Director 
Edward A. Fitzpatrick . . Madison, Wis. 



A NOTEWORTHY EXPRESSION 
OF OPINION 

National, Unanimous, Wise 

The desirability and practicability of 
the general proposition of specifically 
training administrators for public service 
in the universities are no longer a ques- 
tion. This proposition was submitted to 
a wide section of influential public opin- 
ion in the United States, and the answer 
is given in this, number of The Public 
Servant. It is practically a unanimous 
answer. You will have to search long 
in the letters printed herein for the very 
few discordant notes. 

On the specific propositions contained 
in the Wisconsin bills there was slightly 
more divergence of opinion, part of which 
at least was due to misunderstanding of 
the local situation. But here, too, the 
consensus of opinion in strongly in favor 
of the specific bills. The professors at the 
University were asked to comment on Mr. 
Evjue's bill. And subsequently Senator 
Barwig aimed to secure opinions on his 
bill from both inside and outside the state. 

Specific Legislation Necessary 

In Wisconsin such legislation as is pro- 
posed is needed before the University can 



take up new work for it is specifically pro- 
vided by statute that legislative authoriza- 
tion is required to organize a new school 
or new department. 

Needed: A Special Agency 

There is unanimous opinion in these let- 
ters that some special organization unit 
must handle this work. The preponder- 
ant opinion is in favor of a school. The 
proposal is also made that a professor 
who shall be Director of Public Service 
Training with an advisory committee shall 
conduct this work. It seems to be of 
little importance whether the special form 
of organization is called a school or not. 
But there is very serious danger of losing 
all the value of the special agency if it 
is left dangling in the air without its own 
status. To make it an adjunct to any 
one of the departments which it must 
utilize in the general interest is to invite 
lopsidedness immediately and ultimately 
failure. Where such work is merely an 
attachment to a department both the de- 
partment and the public service training 
will suffer, if present experience in related 
fields of university administration is at all 
significant. 

If, too, the applications of the princi- 
ples of functional management to univers- 
ity administration have been really suc- 
cessful, then the obvious thing to do is to 
apply it here. 

Hor» Much Detail? 

The Barwig bill is highly commended 
in most quarters for its restraint in pre- 
scribing details of educational adminis- 
tration; in a few cases it is condemned. 
The only detail included in the bill is 
the requirement for field training. The 
other parts of the bill are statements of 
present university practice. It is felt by 
those interested in drafting the bill that the 
only way to be sure that training for pub- 
lic service would be carried on by field 
training would be to include it specifically 
in the bill, and that the only way to se- 
cure effective field training would be to in- 
clude a minimum provision in the bill. 
(Continued on page 219) 



1917] 



The Public Servant 



195 



Some Public- Spirited Men 



Houston, Tex. — Will C. Hogg. 

I am glad to vote aye in answer to your 
letter of March 3rd. 

The proposed bill you enclosed ap- 
pears to meet the needs and I trust that 
Wisconsin will pass the bill and that the 
good example of your efficient State Uni- 
versity will be followed promptly through- 
out the country. 

Providence, R. I. — John S. Murdock. 

In view of the increasing participation 
by governmental agencies in matters which 
have heretofore been left to individual in- 
itiative, it is of the utmost importance that 
there be trained a body of men capable of 
managing and administering these gov- 
ernmental activities. So long as there is 
no body of men specially trained for this 
work, appointments will naturally be 
made for political reasons, to the conse- 
quent detriment of the public service. 

It is to the Universities that we must 
look for the training of a body of public 
servants, and especially is this true of 
State Universities. 

I am very glad that Wisconsin, which 
has many times before set an example to 
the other States, is considering taking up 
this great work. The provisions of the bill 
seem to me to be well adapted to accom- 
plishing the purpose in view. 

Milwaukee — Walter Stern. 

Thank you very much for the opportun- 
ity of expressing myself with reference to 
the bill relating to a training school for 
public service at the University. For 
some years, I have been very much inter- 
ested in the promotion of training for pub- 
lic service, and it is indeed gratifying that 
the initial step has l^een taken so as to 
enlist our great Wisconsin University in 
furthering this effort. I am sure that no 
good argument could be brought up to 
discourage an effort of this kind, as we all 



realize that greater proficiency and effici- 
ency is one of the crying needs in our pub- 
lic service wherever that may be. I have 
read over the provisions of the bill, and 
have no suggestions to make as to improv- 
ing the same. I shall appreciate it very 
much indeed to be kept informed as to the 
progress of the same. In my opinion, it is 
one of the most gratifying progressive 
steps in our state, for greater achievements 
in the service for the public interest. I 
trust and hope that the bill may pass, 
and if the intention of the bill is carried 
out, I am satisfied that the result cannot 
help but justify this departure. 

Pasadena, Calif. — William Thum. 

Public business safeguards public 
health and through it individual health to 
a large extent. In the form of legislative 
bodies it defines and legalizes our finan- 
cial programs and systems, without which 
private business would be impossible; reg- 
ulates our financial institutions; protects 
the individual against a crushing maxi- 
mum of extortion by private interests; 
gives us laws on which rests the relation- 
ship of the individual to the general pub- 
lic, as well as to his fellow citizens; pro- 
vides public safety for the individual; af- 
fords the means and does the work in- 
volved in the exercise of the franchise; 
provides our public system of education; 
distributes the burdens of taxation, and 
so on indefinitely. Without public busi- 
ness community life — civilized life — 
would be impossible. It is as important 
and as indispensible as all the private en- 
terprises combined. In fact the two are 
interwoven in modern society and neither 
could be entirely dispensed with without 
a return to barbarism and its consequent 
sparce population. 

Progressive efficiency, therefore, in 
public business is plainly our greatest 
present need. But this cannot be inau- 
gurated without public officials possessed 



196 



The Public Servant 



[April-May 



of the broadest views and the deepest 
understanding of their respective work. 

From extended direct observation I am 
convinced that this requires men with 
specialized preliminary training based on 
a good general education — such an edu- 
cation as actuates a man and gives him a 
capacity and a desire for further knowl- 
edge. A specialized preliminary training 
of this kind cannot be acquired within 
practical limits of time, except under a 
corps of trained instructors with extended 
practical experience. If college work in- 
cludes actual and thorough field work, the 
knowledge and experience being accumu- 
lated by the student at once becomes act- 
ive in the highest sense for purposes of 
further acquisition of knowledge. It rap- 
idly broadens and energizes the student in 
respect to his chosen work. 

Deprived of the advantages of a 
special school training, coupled with prac- 
tical training, after an individual is once 
in the harness undergoing the daily grind 
of routine work his progress gradually 
ceases and becomes next to stationary, his 
mind loses most of its mobility, and he as 
a public servant becomes of nominal value 
only, no matter how honest he may be. 

It is the co-ordination of practical and 
theoretical training which gives your bill 
its great value, making it not only prac- 
ticable but desirable. 

With a relatively short experience in 
the capacity of responsible officials the 
majority of men trained in this way will 
be able and will desire to report their of- 
ficial deeds in a manner intelligible to the 
public. They will be enabled to prove 
that every dollar they spend is spent for 
the public good. Thus will be won the 
people's confidence and co-operation, 
which are essential to the success of pub- 
lic service. 

Officials of this class, because they will 
understand in detail the facts relating to 
their respective departments, w 11 be able 
to check the schemes of private interests 
that attempt to gain personal advantage 
at public expense. Without such a safe- 



guard no government can be called suc- 
cessful. We therefore need such officials 
in sufficient number, armed with facts and 
with the ability to spar with schemers to 
fight off slander which is circulated to 
destroy the confidence of the public in its 
servants and to make even the best of 
them, when fighting alone, almost impo- 
tent to protect the people's rights. 

I regard highly the provisions of your 
bill and believe them as practical and 
beneficial as possible in the light of ex- 
perience now available. 

Boston — William Minot. 

Although I have not held public office, 
(except in local ward committee) as a 
member of the Executive Committee of 
the Good Government Assn. in Boston I 
have followed political conditions in this 
city very closely. There seem to me to 
be two great problems in regard to the 
government of American c'ties. The first 
is the scarcity of able men who are willing 
to undertake the work; and the second is 
the difficulty of persuading the public to 
choose capable men, even if they are 
available. 

I very strongly approve your bill pro- 
viding for education for public service in 
your State University, and I strongly feel 
that it would be of great advantage to 
American cities and other political units 
to have trained men available. Should 
the training of men for public service be- 
come general, so that many were avail- 
able, there would still be the problem of 
how to get them appointed or chosen in 
jobs for which they may be qualified, 
rather than some worthless political fav- 
orite. 

However, I believe that having trained 
men definitely available would mean that 
they would be appointed at least to minor 
positions, and it would certainly make it 
easier to bring pressure upon various com- 
munities to have them appointed or elected 
to positions of more importance. 

As I understand your bill it seems to 
me a splendid step in the right direction. 



1917 



The Public Sei-vant 



197 



Philadelphia — Martris L. Cooke. 

It will be a gratification to every friend 
of good government to know that Wiscon- 
sin is looking forward to taking this great 
constructive step in the development of an 
efficient democracy. We in the east have 
become accustomed to associating demo- 
cratic progress with your state. If through 
such legislative authorization you can 
make it possible for the University of 
Wisconsin to establish a department for 
the education and training of those who 
propose to enter the field of public admin- 
istration you will have added another to 
a long series of services to the cause of 
good government. 

For some years past I have interested 
myself in municipal administration and 
more especially during the years 1912- 
1916 when I occupied the position of 
director of Public Works, City of Phil- 
adelphia. I have demonstrated to my 
own satisfaction that we will never have 
the right kind of public servants until we 
develop an adequate system for their edu- 
cation. The old theory that they grow 
just like Topsy is reported to have grown 
is exploded. It seems to me peculiarly 
timely that you in Wisconsin should be 
contemplating this step just at this time. 
Though we recognize the possibility of 
passing through a war it seems to me that 
there is nothing more important before our 



people than the subject of adequate and 
efficient administration of our public af- 
fairs. After all a war would be nothing 
more than putting this into practice. If 
we have a war it will be a big object les- 
son to our people as to the necessity for 
improvements in administration. Our duty 
then is to prepare the agencies through 
which these steps forward can be brought 
about. Without attempting in any way 
to criticize the bill you have prepared I 
simply want to suggest that possibly an 
authorization for the establishment of a 
school of public administration with the 
definite object of training for the public 
service and with an appropriation ade- 
quate to carry the scheme into effect might 
be better than a bill in which too many 
of the administrative details are outlined. 

New York — Delos F. Wilcox. 

I have examined this bill with great in- 
terest. The importance of technical train- 
ing in public service can hardly be over- 
estimated, and the necessity for it is be- 
coming greater every day as the work of 
the governmental bodies becomes more 
complex and difficult. The general provi- 
sions of your bill seem to be admirable. 
Of course, I cannot pass judgment on the 
question as to whether or not its details 
are adapted to local conditions in Wis- 
consin, but I have no doubt that they are* 



Presidents of Universities and Colleges 



Univ. of Chicago — Harry Pratt Judson. 
It is, I believe, entirely possible to es- 
tablish such training school to train ad- 
ministrators for the public service. This 
does not relate to officials who in the main 
should be elected or appointed by the 
Governor, and who are responsible for 
discretionary service. The provisions of 
the bill strike me favorably. 

Univ. of Idaho — Melvin A. Brannon. 

I am very happy to learn of this move- 
ment which you are initiating in the great 



progressive state of Wisconsin. You have 
clearly seized one of the serious needs 
which we are experiencing in our Amer- 
ican democracy. It is little less than 
marvelous that we have gotten on so well 
in our democratic affairs of state and na- 
tion, in view of the fact that we require 
trained men in only one of our three great 
departments of state service, namely, the 
judiciary. It is quite possible for one in 
both legislative and executive relationships 
in our state affairs, as we know, to be 
elected to such positions without any ade- 



198 



The Public Servant 



[April-May 



quate training whatsoever. It is most for- 
tunate that we have had so many able men 
in our executive chairs and in our legis- 
lative halls. 

This need for public service, however, 
is as you have indicated especially serious 
in our municipalities and in our county 
work. I have only the highest approval 
of your measure and send my best wishes 
for the successful realization of it. 

Univ. of South Carolina — W. S. Cur- 
rell. 
I like your bill very much. I should 
like to see such a department in the Uni- 
versity of South Carolina, but the funds 
in the state will not permit it at present. 

Univ. of Colorado — James H. Baker.* 
Regarding bill for a training school 
for public service, I decidedly favor it. 
The great problem of democracy today 
is efficient administration. The whole 
organization of state and society must be 
more and more on lines suggested by suc- 
cessful business. The rapidly increasing 
popularity of the city manager plan illus- 
trates this. Men trained in the univers- 
ities and the field for social work and city 
and state administration are the great 
need. Moreover, by this cooperation be- 
tween universities and the public the uni- 
versities will be come of highest service to 
the people. 

Leland Stanford Jr. U. — Ray Lyman 
Wilbur. 
It seems to me that your bill meets a 
very important need in public service and 
that at least in the state universities a very 
definite attempt should be made to solve 
it. I know of no better place to have such 
a bill as yours put into operation than in 
the State of Wisconsin. Necessarily it 
will mean certain readjustments in regard 
to political appointments and that sort of 
thing. It will be something of a gamble 
for those who take the work at first, until 



^President Emeritus. 



there is a sounder point of view towards 
the man who is trained and expert in pub- 
lic service. The only way to solve this 
problem is to have some thorough trial of 
it and to set an example of efficiency and 
general usefulness in contrast to our pres- 
ent hit-or-miss method of political appoint- 
ments, for politics sake rather than for the 
community. 

It seems to me that the provisions of 
your bill are quite satisfactory. 

Univ. of South Dakota — R. L. Slagle. 

The need for special training of men 
for public service is coming very rapidly, 
and if it were not for the fact that we had 
so many other important obligations to 
meet, I should have made a great attempt 
to get similar legislation in our own State 
this year. But I am sure that it is a mat- 
ter of only a few more years before 
courses such as you advocate will be in- 
troduced in all of our state universities. 

Wishing you the greatest success in this 
movement. 

Bates College — George C. Chase. 

It seems to me that such training for 
public service as you are seeking to secure 
in the universities of our country is highly 
desirable and important. I shall be glad 
to know that your bill has been enacted 
into a law. 

Harvard Univ. — A. Lawrence Lowell. 

I am very much obliged to you for 
sending me the bill which you have in- 
troduced into the Legislature of the state 
of Wisconsin, relating to a training school 
for public service in the University. This 
question is a very important one. I am 
one of those who believe that the test of 
democracy will be found, and its success 
will depend, on its ability to use experts in 
the public service. This is, I believe, the 
rock on which the democracies of ancient 
times all foundered. There will neces- 
sarily be experiments in our Universities 
in training for the public service, and this 



19171 



The Public Sei-vant 



19fc 



one you suggest will be one of the num- 
ber. 

Coe College — Charles T. Hickok. 

I heartily favor such courses as are out- 
lined and believe tney are practicable. If 
the colleges can train for other professions 
why not for this? The prevailing senti- 
ment has been that in a democracy any 
one and every one was divinely qualified 
for office. 

Univ. of California — Benj. I. Wheeler. 

I am very much in favor of having men 
trained in the University for public serv- 
ice. As far as I can see, the bill in Sen- 
ate No. 208, S., introduced by Senator 
Barwig, would have a beneficial effect. 
As things are now, we are giving the very 
training that is required in our Depart- 
ment of Political Science and Govern- 
ment; but the effect of such a bill would 
be, it seems to me, to solidify and inte- 
grate the work available in the Univers- 
ity for such purpose. 

Smith College— M. L. Burton*. 

I am now back at my desk and wish 
to take this opportunity to say that I have 
read over your letter and the bill twice 
and in the meantime have endeavored to 
consider the subject as much as my heavy 
responsibilities here will permit me to do. 
That America needs trained men for Its 
public service I think no one can reason- 
ably doubt. Moreover there is no place 
where men and women can be trained sat- 
isfactorily for such work. This fact it 
seems to me is equally apparent. I can 
remember that as far back as 1900 I was 
eager myself to find a place where I could 
find adequate training to become an ad- 
ministrator in education, particularly for 
college and university presidency work, 
but found that there was practically noth- 
ing of the sort offered in the country. I 



*Recently elected President of the Uni- 
versity of Minnesota. 



imagine that in America we are just go- 
ing to come to the point where we will em- 
ploy trained administrators for many of- 
fices which are now filled by persons un- 
trained and unskilled, who are elected by 
the people. For example, now we always 
think of employing a trained educator a& 
superintendent of our public schools. I 
believe that we could follow the same pol- 
icy in many other tasks that confront us 
as a Democracy. I believe that we can 
keep the government closest to the people* 
secure results which are far more satisfy- 
ing and do it with much greater economy 
by training administrators for public serv- 
ice. I believe, moreover, that the people 
and the voters will see the great wisdom 
ultimately of such a method. 

It is quite difficult, if not impossible 
for me to speak upon your second ques- 
tion, namely the provisions of the bill: 
which you enclose. I should have to 
know more about some of your statutes 
and particularly about the functions and 
powers and rights which have been com- 
mitted to the Board of Regents of the 
University of Wisconsin. It strikes me 
off-hand that there is danger of the bill 
being declared unconstitutional because 
possibly it interferes with the rights of the 
Regents, but of course this is only a mat- 
ter of fact and not of opinion. My un- 
derstanding is that in some states the Leg- 
islature has definitely committed to the 
Board of Regents the educational inter- 
ests of the University. If this is true in* 
Wisconsin, I should imagine that such a 
Senate bill would be contradictory to 
those rights and prerogatives. On the 
other hand of course there ought to be 
some way of getting this point of view be- 
fore the Board of Regents. 

Middlebury College — John M. Thomas 

I think in New England we would be 
suspicious of such an effort, fearing that 
it would attract men of an impractical 
turn of mind. I have no question, how- 
ever, but that the problem could be 
worked out and that eventually good re- 
sults would be accomplished, just as they 



200 



The Public Servant 



[April-May 



have been in other lines. I shouH iliitik 
your bill was well designed tc make a 
modest start in a wise way. although of 
crrse I am not familK with local con 
d.*t2ons. 

Municipal University of Akron — P. R. 
Kolbe, Ph. D., 
I am heartily in sympathy with your 
desire to establish a training school for 
men about to enter the public service. I 
am, of course, not sufficiently familiar 
with the conditions at the University of 
Wisconsin to know whether they desire 
to or are able to undertake such work. 
As an entirely separate proposition, how- 
ever, the establishment of such a school 
would seem to mark a distinct forward 
step in education. 

Swarthmore College — Joseph Swain 

As to your first question I believe in 
training young men for public service in 
our universities. As I am not a specialist 
in this line, I would not presume to pass 
on your second question. 

Oberlin College — Henry C. King. 

I have no doubt that the universities 
can do much in preparing men for work 
in public administration, and it is notable, 
I think, that a number of them are doing 
much more work than hitherto in just this 
line. And it would seem to be work en- 
tirely appropriate for the University of 
Wisconsin to take up, as suggested in your 
Bill. 

Purdue University — W. E. Stone 

Undoubtedly there is much which may 
be taught concerning public administration 
in the college or the university. It is an 
entirely appropriate and suitable thing to 
be included in the University curriculum. 
There is a growing disposition to entrust 
the management of municipal affairs to a 
business manager who should be a trained 
man. The whole field of municipal gov- 
ernment is peculiar and it is entirely 
proper and feasible to train men for such 
service. 



Of course, it is not to be assumed that 
a young man just out of the university 
having pursued such a course of study, 
is fitted for such a position. He must 
have in addition to his training, practical 
experience the same as in any other de- 
partment of life. I consider it a very 
wise and suitable step to take to inaugur- 
ate such training in a state university. 

The Centre College — William Arthur 
Ganfield 

I am very much in favor of your prop- 
osition. I have just been conferring with 
some members of our Faculty upon this 
very matter arranging courses of study. 

I have on my desk a long letter from a 
representative of the New York Tribune 
on this very subject. It is a matter in 
which I have a very deep interest and 
would be glad, indeed, to know the result 
of your investigation and your recom- 
mendations. 

With respect to paragraph in your bill 
beginning line 18, I do not feel myself 
so certain. I have no suggestions to 
make, but I appreciate the danger in- 
volved in proposing college or university 
credit for work done in political office or 
position. If we can inspire our students 
to accept and render service in political 
position with the same spirit, motive and 
interest that they engage in service in in- 
dustrial positions, then I am sure that the 
work shall be worthy of full recognition 
by a college or university and deserving 
of credit. 

Thank you very kindly for your inter- 
est in sending me copy of your bill, and 
as stated above, I would be glad to know 
the outcome of the matter. 

The Johns Hopkins University — Frank 
J. Goodnow 
I feel that the establishment of such a 
school will ultimately be of great advant- 
age. At the same time, I think it is very 
doubtful whether such a school would at- 
tract many students until such time as the 
civil service law of the state provided that 
some recognition in appointment to public 



1917] 



The Public Servant 



201 



office in the state be given to those who 
have pursued the course in the school sat- 
isfactorily. 

I am very glad, however, to learn that 
you have taken the matter up. 

I am, with best wishes for the success 
of your enterprise. 

The Ohio State University— W. O. 
Thompson 

This institution is already doing some 
work in the matter of public service but 
our organization would not make such a 
proposal as is offered in the above named 
bill satisfactory. * * * 

We have no system, however, of cred- 
its for actual work done in municipal, 
county or state departments and I doubt 
very much whether such a procedure 
would be worth much in Ohio where po- 
litical considerations control the policy of 
the office. We are very strongly of the 
opinion that the University ought to pro- 
vide such instruction as will train young 
men and young women for public service. 
We have had very pleasant commenda- 
tion of a number of our students locally 
and also at Washington. We shall de- 
velop this work as experience suggests 
wise. 



-Willi 



1am 



A. W. 



Bowdoin Colleen 
Hyde 

I consider training for public service 
very desirable, and should expect the en- 
closed bill to advance the cause of good 
city government. However, I believe that 
the field of public service as a profession 
will not be secure until there is a prevail- 
ing public opinion in favor of eliminating 
politics and spoils from municipal admin- 
istration. 

This bill is probably a step in the right 
direction, but of itself it cannot bring 
about a millennium in municipal admin- 
istration. 

Case School of Applied Science — 
Charles S. Howe 
1. I am entirely in accord with the 
proposition to give training in our uni- 



versities for public service. Of course 
men would go from the university to com- 
paratively small positions because they 
would need a large amount of practical 
information before assuming positions of 
great responsibility. Subjects like mu- 
nicipal administration, ecomonics, political 
science, sociology, political economy, 
which would include taxation, distribu- 
tion, labor, and so forth, can well be 
taught in the university. The majority 
of our public officials in cities know lit- 
tle or nothing about any of these subjects 
in a scientific way. 

2. I do not know enough about leg- 
islative bills to say anything about some 
of the provisions of the bill which you 
sent me. It seems to cover in a general 
way what should be done but does not 
provide any funds for carrying out its 
provisions. Would not this be necessary? 

Dalhousie University — A. Stanley Mc- 
Kenzie 
I am greatly interested in the object 
which you have in view, namely, to get a 
body of men trained to do public serv- 
ices, just as the great businesses of the 
country get men trained for their particu- 
lar requirements. I have lived long 
enough in your country to know that the 
problem is as serious there as here in 
Canada. This is due partly of course 
to the atrocious civil service rules which 
have existed, allowing the public business 
to be handed over to incompetents, and 
worse; but even when allowance is made 
for this it seems an anomaly in the stage 
of development that we have reached in 
these two countries, that it should be 
mainly the public business that should be 
improperly attended to. It seems, there- 
fore, most reasonable that you should ask 
your great State University to undertake 
the specific problem of turning out gradu- 
ates who would go into the public admin- 
istration so equipped as to make as great 
a success of it as do others who are 
trained for other specific administrative 
types of work. I feel that the difficulty 
at first will not be to find enough men cap- 



202 



The Public Servant 



[April-May 



able of doing such work, but with a wil- 
lingness in that direction. So far it has 
not seemed to appeal to men that going 
in for a life work of this kind is both a 
patriotic duty and a noble type of service. 
The dignifying of such work by making 
a school of it in the University will tend 
to have this latter effect, and that perhaps 
at first will be the most important result 
of the founding of such a school. I do 
not know that I can see just how such a 
course would be differentiated from 
courses for certain other types of business, 
but as I have just said, that will work it- 
self out, and the fact that such form of 
life work is put on as a regular profes- 
sional school of the University will be of 
decided national benefit. 

Knox College — Thomas McClelland 

I have read with interest your proposed 
bill for the establishment of a department 
of training for public service in the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin. I think the passage 
of such a bill would be of great import- 
ance to the state. The specific provisions 
of the bill are remarkably well adapted 
to the work of such a department. 

Miami University — R. M. Hughes 

I think you are striking at the vital 
point in our present American affairs. 
The question is, whether or not after 
these men are trained they can have any 
reasonable assurance of securing an ap- 
pointment, if politics can be eliminated 
from the situation to such a degree that 
these men can hope for some recognition. 
I believe this suggested plan will be a 
great step forward. 

I notice among our student body an 
increasing interest in civic and state af- 
fairs. The feeling, however, is that the 
only road there is thru political preferment 
and that merit has nothing to do with the 
proposition. The general idea of your 
bill I am in hearty sympathy with, and be- 
lieve that an able man in charge of it 
could work out large results. The suc- 
cess of the whole enterprise, in my judg- 
ment, would depend on the attitude of 



the people and of those with appointing, 
power toward those who completed the 
course. I believe that much could be ac- 
complished by such a course particularly 
with the practical work properly articu- 
lated with it and that such a course would 
turn out men who would be valuable ser- 
vants of the state. 

Congratulating you on initiating this 
work. 

The Tulane University of Louisiana — 
Robert Sharp 

I approve heartily of the Bill promising 
so great improvement in the quality and 
efficiency in the public service of your 
State. The same idea, essentially, has 
been in my own mind, not only with ref- 
erence to our State but the Federal gov- 
ernment as well; but it has remained for 
men like yourself to take the initiative and 
make operative theories that were useless 
merely as such. 

I agree, as indicated, completely with 
(1) in your letter. With regard to (2) 
I have doubt only with regard to a minor 
feature, namely, that contained in lines 8 
and 9: "such professor shall be the dean 
of the training school for public service'*. 
That, however, is a detail that would de- 
•pend upon the conditions in each particu- 
lar institution. 

The University of Tennessee — Brown 
Ayres 
I should think that in a state where the 
general intelligence on questions of this 
sort has been developed to the point it 
has in Wisconsin, it would be an admir- 
able thing to undertake this work in the 
University. The time has hardly come 
for us to do it here; neither educational 
nor political conditions would justify it 
at this time. 

Trinity College (Conn.) — F. S. Luther 
My own opinion at present is. that pub- 
lic service consists in rendering to the pub- 
lic exactly the same kind of service that 
men of various professions and occupa- 
tions generally are expected to render to 



1917] 



The Public Servant 



203 



the various private companies, syndicates, 
firms, or individuals; that is to say that 
when the public wants anything done, it 
should look out for a man who is trained 
• to do that kind of thing exactly as any 
other corporation. And I think we have, 
perhaps, enough technical, professional, 
and business schools at present, or if we 
have not, they should be organized with- 
out regard to the employers who are 
likely to need the services of their gradu- 
ates. 

Union College — C. A. Richmond 

It seems to me that the provisions of 
your bill answer very well the purpose 
you have in mind. I agree entirely with 
you that we must train men for public 
administration. Our methods heretofore 
have been hap-hazard and inefficient. 
The only thing we must be careful about 
is that the training shall not be too aca- 
demic. Many things look good on paper 
Jiat do not work out in practice. The in- 
dispensable thing is that we shall develop 
in all our citizens an entirely differeirC con- 
ception of their obligations. 

University of Arkansas — J. C. Futrall 

I endorse the general idea of training 
administrators for public service in the 
University. Whether Senate Bill No. 
208, a copy of which has been sent to 
me by you fits the conditions in your state 
and would be practical, it is impossible 
for me to say. I should think that the 
Regents and Faculty of the University of 
Wisconsin would be in a much better po- 
sition to judge as to that fact than I am. 
It is a fact that we have in our public 
life very few trained administrators. I 
apprehend, however, that it will not be 
possible to induce any very large number 
of young men to take university courses 
in public administration until political con- 
ditions in this country are so changed as to 
open' up an attractive field to persons of 
such training, just as persons who have 
been trained in law, medicine, and other 
professions, now have their opportunities. 
It is now a fact that a man engaged in 



almost any kind of public administration 
unless he be under the federal civil service 
knows that with the passing of a few 
years, he is very likely to be looking for 
a new position. . 

I understand that, as a matter of fact, 
various institutions have attempted to do 
work in training men for diplomatic, con- 
sular, and other foreign service, but that 
the development of such work has been 
very much hindered by the fact that there 
is no permanency about the position. 

University of Colorado — Livingston Far- 
rand 

I regard training for public service as 
one of the pressing needs of the present 
day in this country, and, further, that it 
is a legitimate and desirable function of a 
university to provide suitable courses for 
the purpose. I am, therefore, entirely in 
sympathy with the purpose of your bill. 

As to the specific provisions, I am not 
in a position to speak. In a general way, 
I would not organize a new field on the 
basis of a school with a dean and as many 
specifications as you make. I would let 
those matters be worked out by the uni- 
versity authorities as conditions might call 
or warrant. 

University of Florida — A. A. Murphree 

(1) In my judgment, there is in our 
St?te Universities of this Country a great 
field for service, as yet unexploited, for a 
training school for public service. It is 
impossible to touch upon all the subjects 
in the usual college course that should be 
included in a course of study in such a 
school. In a government like ours, there 
is a great need for men trained in public 
affairs and for positions of administration. 
Such men with such training would 
quicken interest in public affairs and tone 
up the entire body politic. Such an im- 
pulse is greatly needed at this time in our 
municipal, state and national laws. 

(2) The Bill, concerning which you 
invite an expression of my opinion, im- 
presses me as being a most admirable 
measure. I should be glad to see this 



204 



The Public Servant 



[April-May 



adopted, and to see the University of 
Wisconsin take the lead, as she has done 
in so many other fields, in the develop- 
ment of a training school for public ser- 
vice, such as this Bill contemplates. 

University of Michigan — H. B. Hutchins 
The purpose that you have in view is 
certainly to be commended. Instruction 
along the line suggested in your bill has 
been given in this University in our De- 
partment of Political Science for several 
years and with good results. 

I doubt the propriety of providing for 
the details of such work in a legislative 
bill. It seems to me that the details 
should be worked out by the university 
authorities without legislative suggestion 
or restriction. That is the way in which 
it would be done in this state. 

The University of Rochester — Rush 

Rhees. 

Assuming that the executive depart- 
ments in our states, our counties and our 
cities are willing to give to administrative 
positions stability of tenure and promise 
of promotion which would make specific 
preparation for service in such positions 
worth while, I believe that colleges and 
universities both may and should intro- 
duce courses looking to the preparation of 
candidates for such positions. 

I am in hearty sympathy with the 
ideas contained in the Wisconsin Sen- 
ate Bill No. 208. I think you are 
going at it in the right way. I believe it 
is practicable to train men for public ser- 
vice. I think it will eake some time for 
the universities to work out a satisfactory 
program. Therefore, it seems to me that 
the first attempts should be very carefully 
made. I shall be interested in watching 
the results in your State if your bill be- 
comes a law. 

The University of Oklahoma — Stratton 

D. Brooks. 

There is no doubt that a very great ser- 
vice can be rendered by the establishment 
in state universities and in other universi- 



ties of schools of public service. One of 
the chief difficulties of administration 
everywhere is the lack of trained men for 
such service. I am not familiar with the 
conditions in Wisconsin, but I do not 
understand why a legislative enactment is 
necessary in such a case. In most uni- 
versities the regents or the faculty would 
have full authority to establish all neces- 
sary courses, and in particular, I would 
question the desirability of Section 2 of 
your bill, which creates a specific position 
and assigns specific duties. Such action 
would be contrary to the general principles 
of wise administration in the university. 
If any legislative action is necessary, it 
would seem to me that a single general 
section authorizing the board of regents to 
establish and maintain such a school as 
you have in mind would be amply suffi- 
cient. 

The University of Wyoming — C. A. 

Duniway. 

I believe that your proposal to es- 
tablish a training school for public ser- 
vice in the University of Wisconsin is an 
excellent idea. It seems to me in every 
way a good plan to have state educational 
institutions perform this kind of public 
service. 

Not knowing intimately the conditions 
in Wisconsin, I am not prepared to ex- 
press an opinion on the provisions of your 
bill. In general, it would appear to sug- 
gest a proper method to have this work 
of training of public administrators 
carried out. 

West Virgina University — Frank B. 

Trotter. 
I will say that the desirability and practic- 
ability of the general proposition is good, 
but I would resent it if anybody should 
introduce a bill into our legislature requir- 
ing a specific thing like that. The proper 
way, in my judgment, is to say to the 
regents that there is need of such a thing 
and ask them as a matter of public service 
to establish such a chair. The regents 
are supposed to know the needs to which 



1917] 



The Public Servant 



205 



the University is expected to minister and 
they are also expected to know the capa-. 
bilities of the University as far as finances 
are concerned, etc. 

Your constitution no doubt provides for 
a Board of Regents to be appointed by 
the Governor to manage the University 
and to provide facilities for doing what in 
their judgment and the judgment of the 
faculty and the President of the Universi- 
ty seems best; therefore the matter should 
be laid before them and its desirability 
impressed upon them and not a mandate 
upon them through legislative action. 

Williams College — H. A. Garfield. 

I am skeptical as to the practicability 
of training administrators for public serv- 
ice in the universities. My doubt is 
whether training which must necessarily be 
theoretical will not lack some of the vital 
qualities gained from practical experience. 
You have partyl covered this point in lines 
1 8 and following of the bill, though lines 
23-25 may be so construed as to weaken 
unduly the provision referred to. 

The best, preparation for public service, 
even in minor offices, is the broad train- 
ing of college work of the old type with 
such graduate study as shall train one 
specifically for a particular field. To 
sacrifice the liberal training for a specific 
preparation before, say the age of 21 , will 
almost inevitably produce a bureau-cratic 
official with narrow horizon and lack of 
that vision without which people perish. 

Worcester Polvtechnic Institute — Ira N. 
Hollis. 

In answer to your two questions, I de- 
sire to say that the whole subject of train- 
ing for public service has been neglected 
in our country and I hope that something 
will be done towards curing the evils of a 
political appointment to office. As a mat- 
ter of fact, no man ought to be appointed 
to an office for which he has not had some 
preparation and our civil service would be 
better for a recognition of this fact. Conse- 
quently I entirely approve your first prop- 
osition in regard to the desirability of 



training administrators for public service. 
I fear the practicability of it because there 
are many branches of administration. The 
principal business connected with any city 
relates to the maintenance of all kinds ot 
public utilities that come more or less 
under the engineering profession. I fear 
that a professor of public administration 
at the university would not understand 
this. I have listened to so much twaddle 
on the training for administration that 1 
have grown sceptical about committing 
this business to one professor rather than a 
department made up of a number of men 
representing the different professions. 
A business man in the city of Worcester 
would find himself involved first with the 
sewage question, next with the communi- 
cations, third with the streets and finally 
with the enforcement of building laws. 
Outside of that the police department is 
the natural administrator and the Chief of 
Police should have had experience in the 
actual management of his force. This 
he cannot get in college. I believe that 
in a course of studies for any profession a 
number of hours might be added to the 
Senior year in the interest of public ad- 
ministration and that would be sufficient. 
I wish the University of Wisconsin well 
and I hope that your bill will prove of ad- 
vantage to the state. 

Yale University — Arthur T. Hadley. 

From our experience in attempting to 
prepare men for the consular service and 
other lines of public activity, I have rather 
come to the conclusion that the establish- 
ment of a school of public service should 
be in response to demands by the Govern- 
ment for work in different branches, rather 
than initiated by the university itself. 
Public service is so varied in character 
that it does not form a profession in the 
sense that law or medicine form profess- 
ions. The preparatory studies for differ- 
ent parts of the service are entirely dif- 
ferent. These are, however, mere impres- 
sions; and I sympathize so fully with the 
underlying purpose of the bill that I do 
not wish you to give too much weight to 
these suggestions. 



206 



The Public Servant 



[April-May 



Some Mayors of Large Cities 



IBoston — James M. Curley. 

I have read with a great deal of inter- 
est your Bill relating to a training school 
for public service at the Wisconsin State 
University. I am in favor of it. I thinfc 
that such a course of training would be 
an excellent thing for any man that aspires 
to public service and it naturally follows 
that it would also be a good thing for the 
public service itself. I do not see why 
anything more need be said about it. 



New Haven — Samuel Campner. 

It seems to me that Senate Bill No. 
208, S., submitted to me by you, contains 
wise provisions for the improvement of 
public service, and I hope the legislature 
of Wisconsin will see fit to pass it. 

5an Francisco — Edward Rainey. 

Is in entire accord with the sentiments 
of the bill and feels that the public serv- 
ices of your State will be bettered by the 
establishment of such a school. Municipal 
government presents a large number of 
problems which are distinctly its own, and 
in the solution of these the training given 
at such a school as that which your bill 
would establish should be of great benefit 
to the public service. 

Kansas City, Mo. — Henry L. Jost. 

Your bill is a good one and gives at- 
tention to a subject that has been, unfor- 
tunately, totally neglected. Twenty-five 
per cent of the taxes and public dues all 
over the countiy are wasted as the result 
of unskilled and untrained arid incom- 
petent public agents. No private busi- 
ness could stand so much bungling as is 
committed in the public service and con- 
tinue. 

I think the bill is the better for its gen- 
eral terms. The details and the scope of 
instruction ought to be left for the time 
being to the professor in charge. Experi- 
ence and development will doubtless call 
for additional legislation later. 



Saint Joseph, Mo. — Elliott Marshall. 

I believe the bill is a good one. 

The general trend nowadays seems to 
be that men should be versed in the gov- 
erning of cities by education. Possibly 
its good. I think training for public 
service is all right, but to get anywhere 
you v/ill have to eliminate politics entirely 
from it. 

Cambridge, Mass. — Wendell D. Rath- 
wood. 
Massachusetts, as well as New Eng- 
land, provides for no state universities. 
The subject matter in the bill of which 
you enclose a copy seems to me to be of 
great importance. The public mind is di- 
rected more and more to the thought of 
the fitness of the men who are to serve as 
their representatives. The enactment of 
your bill would enable men who desire to 
enter public service an opportunity for 
training, and it would also conserve the 
interest of the public in establishing a 
standard of fitness on the part of men 
seeking public office. 

Bridgeport, Conn. — Clifford B. Wilson. 

I am in full accord with your sugges- 
tions. I have always maintained that 
there was no room for division along 
party lines with reference to the govern- 
ment of municipalities. We are all neigh- 
bors and our interests are one in looking 
for the most desirable things for the com- 
munity. 

I think the time is not far distant when 
all semblance of politics will be eliminated 
from the management of muncipalities. 
Personally I believe in the training of ad- 
ministrators for public service, and in my 
opinion the city manager plan is the most 
effective form of government for munici- 
palities. This functionary should of 
course be a trained man. The provisions 
of the bill which you enclosed seem, in a 
general way, to meet the requirements sug- 
gested. 



1917] 



The Public Servant 



207 



Men Who are Facing the Problem 



Training School for Public Service, New 
York— C. A. Beard. 

Wisconsin would be taking a great step 
forward in higher education in establish- 
ing a school of public administration. 
Western Reserve University and the Uni- 
versity of Texas have already made im- 
portant beginnings in training for the pub- 
lic service. We owe it to candor, how- 
ever, to say that our public service must 
undergo a drastic reorganization and offer 
genuine careers to trained servants before 
such a Schpol as you propose can do its 
best work. 

As to Sections 1 and 2 of your bill, I 
do not care to express an opinion, because 
I am not intimately acquainted with the 
organization of your University. Broadly 
speaking, however, I see nothing objec- 
tionable in them. With the provisions of 
Section 3, I am in hearty accord. No 
training in public administration can be 
accomplished which does not include ex- 



perience in actual service. Have you 
considered, however, the problem involved 
in requiring public officers to assume the 
responsibility of supervising students who 
are sent out in field work? Have you 
legal warrant for requiring officers to give 
students practical work under their di- 
rection? 

Western Reserve U. — J. E. Cutler. 

The best answer that I can make to 
your request for our opinion of the bill 
is to send you a copy of the bulletin de- 
scribing our newly organized School of 
Applied Social Sciences. You will note 
that the Division of Municipal Adminis- 
tration and Public Service in this school 
corresponds very closely to what you have 
in mind. We are here trying to do that 
very thing and as evidence of our belief 
in its desirability and practicability we 
have established this school as an addi- 
tional school in this university. 



State Superintendents of Schools 



United States Commissioner of Education 
—P. P. Claxton. 

I endorse the proposition that public 
administrators should receive formal train- 
ing. It is my opinion that the universities 
working in cooperation with various civic 
agencies and with the aciual departments 
of government are the institutions best 
qualified to offer such training. 

I believe that the bill submitted by you 
might be improved if it were made gen- 
eral rather than specific. Experience has 
shown that it is unwise to prescribe in too 
great detail the scope, purposes, and 
method of administration of an educa- 
tional institution. The effect which I 
have in mind might be obtained if Section 
2 were eliminated from your bill. Pos- 
sibly it might then be desirable to maKe 
certain minor additions to Section 1 to 



cover the grade of instruction to be of- 
fered and the general provisions for its 
support. 

Louisiana — T. H. Harris. 

It was my good fortune to spend a day 
or two in Madison some years ago get- 
ting in touch with the different depart- 
ments of the State University, and I was 
very strongly impressed with the wonder- 
ful service which that institution was ren- 
dering the people of the state in various 
ways. Should you succeed in enact/ng 
your bill into law, you will place the Uni- 
versity in position to add very materially 
to its useful service. It seems to me that 
the department which you propose to cre- 
ate is an important one and would ac- 
complish a public service the value of 
which cannot be over-estimated. We are 



208 



The Public Servant 



[April-May 



coming more and more to the belief that 
the public's business should be conducted 
in a business-like way, and certainly a 
department connected with the University 
and conducted by men of ability, organ- 
ized to fit men and women for the differ- 
ent branches of public service, would ac- 
complish much good. I wish that our 
funds in this state were such that a de- 
partment of this kind could be organized 
in connection with* our state university. 

Florida— W. N. Sheats. 

I am thoroughly in sympathy with you 
in a matter of that character. I know the 
inefficiency of many persons working in 
the public service, and I know the neces- 
sity of training men for such service. I 
see no reason why a department might 
not be established in your university, that 
would, to a large extent, meet the neces- 
sities of the case. 

Ohio — F. B. Pearson. 

I have looked over your proposed bill 
authorizing a training school for public 
service at the University of Wisconsin. 
The idea commends itself to me fav- 
orably. I believe by establishing such a 
department as you propose the university 
would be fulfilling one of those purposes 
for which universities are maintained at 
public expense, namely, increased effici- 
ency in public service. I can see no valid 
objections to establishing such a depart- 
ment in all state universities. I wish you 
much success. 

Arizona — C. O. Case. 

1. The measure you have sent me 
appeals to me as desirable inasmuch as it 
provides for efficiency that schooled and 
tested gets on its merits the places that too 
often inefficiency now secures through po- 
litical pull only. The bill moreover ap- 
pears to be practical in its provisions for 
securing special service in the various de- 
partments of state. 

2. I think in every way the provisions 
of the Bill are good. 



Massachusetts — Payson Smith. 

I believe that such a course as you 
mention in your letter of March seventh 
might be made a very effective means of 
education for public service, and the bill 
which you have submitted seems admir- 
ably to provide for the proposed course. 

Delaware — Charles A. Wagner. 

( 1 ) The desirability and practic- 
ability of the general proposition of spe- 
cifically training administrators (not po- 
litical officers) for public service in the 
universities. Excellent. 

(2) The provisions of the enclosed 
bill. Not carefully enough worked out. 

District of Columbia — Ernest L. Thurs- 
ton. 

I am strongly of the opinion that the 
time will come, and that it is not very far 
away, when there will be a general ap- 
preciation of the good of definite training 
for public service. Wisconsin has been 
progressive in many things educational. I 
do not see why she should not take this 
step in this matter. 

The bill itself is interesting and sug- 
gestive and seems to me to outline a plan 
that is well worth trying. 

Iowa — Albert M. Deyoe. 

Permit us to say that we are very much 
interested in this measure. No one can 
deny the great need of trained public ser- 
vants, nor the desirability of selecting such 
servants on the basis of their training and 
efficiency rather than on the basis of po- 
litical affiliation. 

The plan you propose will certainly be 
a factor in this direction. Of course it 
will be necessary to take steps to see that 
a demand is created for officials trained 
in this way. It occurs to us that many 
of those who prefer to make political ap- 
pointments have the authority to make 
appointments and do not wish to be 
hampered by making a selection from a 
certain specified group of individuals who 



1917 



The Public Servant 



209 



have made special preparation for the 
work in question. 

We shall be very much interested in 
watching the results of this measure in 
case it becomes a law in Wisconsin. 

Kentucky — McHenry Rhoads. 

I have the pleasure to state that I am 
in hearty sympathy with the motive found 
in this bill, particularly so, if it can be 
kept out of politics and utilized strictly 
for public service training. 

Maine — Glenn W. Starkey. 

This bill strikes me as containing some 
features worthy of very careful considera- 
tion and as opening the way to a standard 
of public service such as would place 
Wisconsin at the very forefront of those 
states having effective organization for 
the conducting of the state's business. 

I most certainly believe in the desir- 
ability and practicability of the general 
proposition of training administrators for 
public service and I know of no place in 
which such training can be carried on in 
as effective a manner as in the state uni- 
versity. 

Maryland — M. Bates Stephens. 

I realize the need for better trained 
workers in municipal service and appre- 
ciate with you the difficulty in securing 
competent men for such work. I am not 
sure that the State Legislature should pre- 
scribe in so much detail regulations for 
establishing courses or departments in its 
State University. While the Board of 
Control charged with the duty of admin- 
istering the University is to be held re- 
sponsible for the school, it seems only fair 
to allow it as much freedom as possible. 
Another difficulty which would be met in 
many places, is the desire of those in con- 
trol of municipal affairs to reward po- 
litical servants by having them elected. It 
is one of the hard things for a democracy 
to make much use of expert knowledge 
and ability in any of its work. 

I wish to commend your interest and 



effort in the solution of the problem and 
should be pleased to know what your 
Legislature finally does in the matter. 

Michigan — Fred L. Keeler. 

I think your idea a splendid one and if 
the machinery is properly worked out, it 
will undoubtedly be of value to your state 
if passed. 

Minnesota — C. G. Schulz. 

The idea and the general plan seem 
entirely proper and deserving of support. 

I question whether you should attempt 
to fix the details by statute as provided 
under Sections 2, 3, and 4. Frcm my 
experience, I am of the opinion that the 
details of its administration should be left 
open to be determined by the proper uni- 
versity authorities or other public officials 
or boards who may be directly concerned. 

Nevada — John Edwards Bray. 

It seems to me the purpose of this bill 
is very good as it provides for an agency 
for starting the work of training men for 
public service, and, I should think, would 
be warmly supported in your legislature. 

We haven't any such provisions here 
at the present time as our State is compar- 
atively small in population, though large 
in area, and we have not reached the 
point of advancement in the specialties in 
State government that you have in Wis- 
consin, nor, perhaps, have we reached the 
need of it here that you have there. 

New Hampshire — H. C. Morrison. 

As to the desirability and practicabil- 
ity of the general proposition, I have only 
one answer and that is that in my opinion 
there is scarcely anything more vitally 
needed as a part of the training offered 
by our state universities than just the 
thing which your bill seems to contem- 
plate. I believe this statement would be 
true of every state in the Union and 
would be true of the Federal service it- 
self. 



210 



The Public Servant 



[April-May 



New Jersey — Calvin N. Kendall. 

I think your plan is a very desirable 
one if you can carry it out. Training for 
public service is one of our great needs in 
this country and, so far as I can see, your 
bill is meritorious and deserves support. 

New York — -John H. Finley. 
Heartily approves such training. 

North Carolina : — J. Y. Joyner. 

I heartily approve of your bill provid- 
ing for a training school for public serv- 
ice workers. I believe that such training 
will fill a long felt want and add greatly 
to the efficiency and the economy of pub- 
lic service work. We need in North Car- 
olina now, trained men and women for 
such service. 

Oklahoma— R. H. Wilson. 

This is one of the real missions of the 
State University. The State University 
exists for the services it can render to the 
citizens of the state, and I can think of no 
way by which a greater service can bs 
rendered than to properly train those who 
will serve the state in official and clerical 
capacities. 

Oregon — J. A. Churchill. 

I am of the opinion that such a de- 
partment could be made a very valuable 
one. A great deal of course would de- 
pend upon the organization of the work 
and success would depend entirely upon 
the character of the men chosen to direct 
the study. 

Rhode Island — Walter E. Ranger. 

I do not feel justified, writing from an- 
other commonwealth concerning a matter 
which has immediate interest for your 
State, in saying more than that I am 
heartily in sympathy with every movement 
which tends to promote public education 
and to prepare American youth for active 
citizenship and more complete participa- 
tion in the affairs of government. 



South Dakota — Chas. H. Lugg. 

The plan for establishing and maintain- 
ing a training school for public service ap- 
peals to me as eminently sane. At pres- 
ent we have no method of training our 
public servants except by experience in the 
service, and under our systems of political 
rotation by the time a public servant has 
become sufficiently well trained to be 
really efficient he is dropped from em- 
ployment to make room for some other 
aspirant who wants to learn at the pub- 
lic's expense. There are great problems 
of business management confronting all of 
our states. We want city managers. We 
want men who understand how to organ- 
ize and conduct the various new enter- 
prises upon which all of our states must 
soon or late venture. We want experts 
who can put their fingers on the defects 
of our transportation systems and devise 
sensible remedies. We want qualified 
engineers to check up our various sys- 
ms of production and distribution and 
sceitain beyond the shadow of a guess 
just what degree of efficiency we are at- 
taining. We need leaders in social and 
civic organization who ^non>, not merely 
strong personalities with a theory to test 
out. There is a limitless field for such 
training and I believe the bill you have 
introduced is the opening step in a great 
work that our various universities may 
well undertake. The development of the 
various courses of training and the ar- 
rangement of the necessary details will 
take time and experience because there is 
at present but little to guide the organizers 
in their work, but our American scholar- 
shio ought to be equal to the task and it 
tviH be equal to it, once the state provides 
the necessary means with which to do it. 

Vermont — M. B. Hillegas. 

I believe that the State has a perfect 
right to require a publicly supported uni- 
versity to train persons for public service. 
I cannot speak concerning this matter 
without full knowledge of the conditions 
in your State but the general proposition 



191' 



The Public Servant 



211 



of thoroughly training competent men for 
public service must appeal to every 
thoughtful citizen. 

I do not feel competent to pass judg- 
ment upon the particular form of your 
bill because I do not know all of the fac- 
tors that must be considered in wise leg- 
islation. 

Virginia — R. C. Steames. 

I am most emphatically in favor of ex- 
tending the principle of apprenticeship 
and applying it to professions as well as 
to trades. I also favor the idea of mak- 
ing the school curriculum so practical that 
every school above the elementary grades 
may be, in a sense, a school of appren- 
ticeship. 

Therefore, I wish to express my inter- 
est in the bill you have offered in the Wis- 
consin Legislature and to say that it is 
both desirable and practicable for a uni- 
versity to offer special training for public 
service and civic duties. At the same 
time I would not like to be at the mercy 
of a Legislature that was composed only 
of men thus trained. Certain practical 
characteristics and an admixture of 
mother wit are always desirable in my 
opinion. 

Washington — Mrs. Josephine Corliss 
Preston. 

I believe the sort of training provided 
for in this bill is highly desirable. I can 
see no reason why it would not be entirely 
practicable. 

If there is any one field in which the 
workers should receive instruction before 
they enter it, it is the field of public 
service. 

Such a course as your bill proposes to 
establish, would do away with a great 
deal of the extravagance in the adminis- 
tration of our public affairs, due now, 
largely, to the fact that our administra- 
tive officers have to acquire their knowl- 



edge of the fundamental principles of ad- 
ministration after they have taken office 
and as a result, make their experiments at 
the expense of the public. 

I believe your bill is exceptionally 
well-drawn, inasmuch as it leaves the de- 
tails of working out the Course to the fac- 
ulty of the University after having pro- 
vided for its establishment. 

Wyoming— Edith K. O. Clark. 

The idea appeals to me as entirely 
commendable, but I am somewhat at a 
loss to know just how such a training 
school would operate. For this reason I 
hesitate to endorse the measure as force- 
fully as I might otherwise do. 

If it is not asking too much of you I 
would appreciate your notifying me con- 
cerning the outcome of the measure. If 
it becomes a law I will be interested to 
watch its practical application. Perhaps 
Wyoming will want to borrow the idea 
at some future time if it proves successful 
in Wisconsin. 

South Carolina — J. E. Swearingen. 

The proposal is bureaucratic because it 
makes your trainer irresponsible. The 
only way to secure efficient public service 
is to hold the servant directly accountable 
to the people. The farce of disguising 
under the name of education the tendency 
seeking to make a public office the privi- 
lege of a limited few ought to be exposed 
as soon as possible. As soon as this ten- 
dency is understood by the taxpayers of 
Wisconsin, or of any other state, it will 
be repudiated. 

Connecticutt — Charles D. Hine. 

The bill which you have introduced 
presents very interesting questions. 

The objection to the bill which you 
send is that the instruction is to be under 
university control. 



212 



The Public Servant 



[April-May 



Prof 



roressors 



of the Social Sciences at the University of 



w 



isconsin 



Sociology — E. A. Ross. 

I am most heartily in favor of the es- 
tablishment of a Training School for the 
Public Service at the University of Wis- 
consin. This would be the first of the 
kind in connection with any American uni- 
versity and would attract attention all over 
the Union. I cannot imagine a more le- 
gitimate advertising of the civic interest 
felt by the people of this state. 

It is peculiarly fitting that the school 
should be named after Dr. Ely, who for 
33 years has constantly insisted upon the 
need of trained men to carry out the hu- 
manitarian social policies undertaken by 
the modem state. 

I would respectfully suggest that the 
entrance requirements for the Training 
School, the duration of the course and the 
methods of instruction to be pursued ought 
all to be left to the Regents and the Fac- 
ulty of the University, who are legally in 
charge of educational policies. There is 
no reason to suppose that if the Regents 
were empowered to establish such a 
school, they would fail to use the best 
educational judgment in planning the 
work. 

Political Economy — John R. Commons. 

I am greatly interested in your preposi- 
tion to have the Legislature provide a 
training school for public service in the 
University. / do not believe there is any 
other line of work which would be of 
greater value to the state on the part of 
the University than this £iW of training. 
You doubtless know that for over twenty- 
five years the Department of Political 
Economy has announced that its work is 
intended in part for those who desire to 
enter public service; but there have been 
two obstacles in the way of building up 
that side of the work. 

First: There is practically no future 
in it for a young man because the people 



of the state are not willing to have their 
work turned over to a permanent official 
staff, or so called bureauocracy. Person- 
ally, I believe this is a great mistake and 
that, if properly regulated, the expense of 
running the state and city governments 
could be greatly reduced, and they would 
at the same time be made much more 
efficient if the public service offered as 
good and safe a career as law, medicine 
or a position on the university faculty. 
Under the present circumstances of public 
service a man would prefer to work in the 
university at half or two-thirds of the 
salary which the state or a city has to pay 
for similar qualifications because of the 
future career which it offers and which 
he does not have in public service. 

The other obstacle in the way of build- 
ing up the work in public service during 
the past twenty-five years has been the 
fact that there has been no person on the 
job whose main work would be organizing 
the courses, visiting the cities and public 
officials to find out what is needed, co- 
ordinating the work with other depart- 
ments, such as health, accountancy, engi- 
neering and law, and organizing the train- 
ing and field work. This has been done 
in other lines of university work, for ex- 
ample, the Course in Commerce, Medi- 
cine, Pharmacy, Law and University Ex- 
tension, because a separate department or 
course was created with a man competent 
to push the work and advertise it. 

With these two obstacles in the way it 
will doubtless require some time to build 
up a training school in public service be- 
cause a large part of the work will be 
building up the co-operation of state, city 
and local officials as well as working out 
the new and practical courses of training. 
At the same time I think it one of the 
things greatly needed and one that will be 
full of promise if properly organized and 
financed. 



1917 



The Public Servant 



213 



While I am strongly in favor of the 
principle laid down in your bill I do not 
think the Legislature should prescribe the 
details of courses, or training, or prepara- 
tion or degrees. This would have to be 
worked out just as it has been done when 
other new departments have been taken 
up, like University Extension, School of 
Commerce, School of Medicine, etc. 



Arnold B. Hall, — Political Science. 

I do not believe there is as yet a very 
large demand for men trained particularly 
for the public service, but I am convinced 
that that demand will continue to grow, 
and that ultimately it must come. If we 
could establish such a school at the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin, it would not only 
meet the demand but help to create one, 
and become a practical thing, and I think 
it would be a very valuable service for the 
University to render not only to Wiscon- 
sin but also to the cause of public admini- 
stration in general. 

I notice what you say regarding a later 
bill to provide more in detail for such a 
school. May I suggest the possible wis- 
dom in your not going too far in describ- 
ing the details at this time. We have had 
very little experience in this country in 
practical training for public service, and 
there will be many difficulties to be met 
and many new path- ways to be blazed. 
In view of this fact would it not be better 
to leave the details to be worked out by 
the University and those in charge? 

Professor Charles A. Beard of Colum- 
bie University has probably done more 
work than any of our eastern men and I 
would suggest that you write to him for 
his suggestions. If we could make the 
Richard T. Ely School for Public Service 
a real effective institution to blaze the way 
and to help prepare the public opinion for 
the matter, I believe we will have rendered 
the public a very great service. I shall be 
very glad to co-operate with you in any 
way possible and hope you will call upon 
me whenever I may be of service to you. 

Another suggestion comes to me as I am 



dictating and that is that we ought to have 
a bill introduced at this session providing 
for the City Manager form of city govern- 
ment. With such a bill passed the de- 
mand for training for public service would 
be greatly increased, and the opportunities 
for such a school for the practical applica- 
tion of its principles would also be greatly 
increased. Outside of the state commis- 
sions there is no more fruitful field for de- 
veloping the idea of trained public ser- 
vants than municipal government where 
the Manager form has been adopted. 

Chester Lloyd Jones, — Political Science. 

Of course men who are teaching Poli- 
tical Science can not but be in favor of 
making their instruction of as great value 
to the public as possible. / believe that the 
establishment of a school, the object of 
which is training for the public service, 
would be a move which would ultimately 
repay the necessary expenditure and he a 
decided step in advance for the University 
of Wisconsin. 

It is of course plain that the degree to 
which field training methods can be used 
in connection with college instruction can 
be determined only by experiment, but 
there can be no doubt that the application 
of laboratory methods to instruction in the 
social sciences is decidely desirable. It 
is in fact essential if the student is to get 
that close touch with affairs which will 
make his training most useful to him and 
to the public. I feel that any plan for 
the establishment of a school of the sort 
mentioned in your letter of February 1 0th 
should contemplate the possibility of re- 
quiring the student not only to work while 
in the University in close connection with 
public problems, but should also leave 
it open to require further work of an ap- 
prenticeship nature in the student's chosen 
line as one of the prerequisites for a de- 
gree. This latter work, should I believe, 
be full time work. 

The general proposition covered by 
your bill seems to me highly commend- 
able. I think it important that the out- 
line of the field to be covered should be 



2U 



The Public Servant 



[April-May 



left in general terms so that the develop- 
ment of work in the school could easily 
adapt itself to the lines of service which 
it proved possible to develop. 

William H. Kiekhofer — Sociology. 

I have been giving some thought to 
the matter of the establishment of a train- 
ing school for public service referred to in 
your letter of some time ago. // seems to 
me that there is a great need in this coun- 
try for much more adequate and specific 
training for the public service and that 
the great universities of the country ought 



to be furnishing this training. So I am in 
heartiest accord with the general purpose 
of the measure you have introduced. 

I do not think however, that a bill cre- 
ating such a school should deal with any 
matter of educational policy, feeling that 
that is a matter that ought to be left to the 
faculty for determination. Personally, I 
should like to see the measure so amended 
that the implication is not given that men 
and women trained for public service are 
morally obligated to give that service to 
the state of Wisconsin, The passage of 
such a measure would of course have to 
carry with it a special appropriation. 



Presidents of Wisconsin Colleges 



Ripon — Silas Evans. 

Bill No. 203, S., I heartily endorse. 
Such a movement is imperative. It is in 
the line of efficiency. European coun- 
tries of longer experience train their peo- 
ple for public service. In America there 
is a lamentable waste in all lines of pub- 
lic administration. It is valuable to get 
this matter introduced into the State Leg- 
islative system, for in time there must be 
some provision in the state system to make 
a vocational opportunity for those young 
men who are taking this training. The 
essential weakness in the system now is 
the fact that a man may take this train- 
ing and become well equipped for service, 
and there is no reasonable assurance in 
our system of public administration that 
there will be a demand for his service. 
Something which looks to this feature is 
imperative. 

Lawrence — S. Plantz. 

I do not think there is any question that 
the time has come when practical train- 
ing for public service should be given 
by our universities. We are more and 
more realizing the need of technically 
trained public servants. Such training 
will contribute to efficiency, and if we 



can keep places of public service out of 
the hands of politicians we shall have a 
much more economical administration of 
affairs and a much more capable admin- 
istration through men specially trained, as 
your bill suggests. 

Beloit — Edward D. Eaton. 

I am in sympathy with the objects of 
the Bill. As for the details, I do not 
regard myself as prepared to contribute 
anything of value to the discussion of 
them. They are matters in which the 
judgment of the President and depart- 
mental heads of the University would be 
of highest value. 

Marquette U. — Herbert C. Noonan. 

I have read your bill and I think it a 
very good one. 

A training school for public service is, 
to my mind, very much needed and I 
hope that your bill will pass. 

Northwestern — A. F. Ernst. 

I think your bill is a good thing and if 
the right man will be found for the posi- 
tion will do much good in the future. 

Hoping you will be successful. 



1917] 



The Public Servant 



215 



Wisconsin City Superintendents of Schools 



Eau Claire, Wis.— W. H. Schulz. 

I wish to say that this is one of the 
finest measures ever proposed in our State 
Legislature. If there is any great need 
that we have in our state and in the coun- 
try, it is to have people who are well 
trained for public service of all kinds. 
We will never have efficiency in that end 
of our public service on which the main 
features of administration depends, until 
we have a large body of trained people 
to do the work. I hope the bill will 
pass. 

Kenosha, — Mary D. Bradford. 

It seems to me most appropriate that 
our University should offer these oppor- 
tunities. At present, to get to a school 
where such a training may be secured, one 
has to go to New York or Boston. 

There, certainly, should be a strong 
school somewhere in the west, and I be- 
lieve the University of Wisconsin to be 
the place for it. 

The increasing demand for people who 
are trained for public service, makes the 
establishment of the school contemplated 
by the bill a timely recognition of an im- 
portant need. 

So. Milwaukee— Fred W. Hem. 

I am heartily in accord with this bill 
and that I hope you will succeed in pass- 
ing the same. For I believe that it will 
prepare the class of young men who are 
much needed to take up civic positions 
in the cities throughout the state of Wis- 
consin and elsewhere. 

South Milwaukee would like right now 
to hire somebody to act as secretary of our 
projected Chamber of Commerce, but we 
do not know where to find such a trained 
man. If this bill passes you will be fit- 
ting men for just such positions, and I be- 
lieve there will be a great number of such 
positions open in the near future. There- 



fore I congratulate you on the happy 
idea you have in introducing this bill. 

I trust that you will succeed in making 
it a law; 

Watertown — Thomas J. Berto. 

I believe your bill No. 208, S, relating 
to a training school for public service at 
the University would be a good measure 
to have on the statutes books, provided 
that is the proper way to get additional 
courses at the University, I presume that 
the Board of Regents with the president 
of the University would provide for such 
training, if in their opinion it seemed de- 
sirable. They, of course, are in a position 
better to answer that than I am. 



La Crosse — B. E. McCormick. 

Without having gone into the details of 
the matter and expressing an opinion on 
my general understanding of it, I should 
say that such an institution would, it 
seems to me, be filling a niche in this state. 
I shall study the matter over and report 
my views more fully later if you wish to 
have them. 

Mineral Point— W. R. Rood. 

I have read your Bill, No. 208, S., 
with a great deal of interest, and can give 
it my hearty endorsement. It is time that 
the administration of the affairs of the 
state, county, municipalities, and other 
civic organizations were in the hands of 
expert, trained men, rather than in the 
hands of politicians. As a rule, the 
former plan has proved efficient, and the 
latter wasteful. 

Training and preparation are neces- 
sary for any line of activity, none more so 
than the work in public service. I am 
glad such a Bill as yours has been intro- 
duced, and I trust that it will become a 
law. 



216 



The Public Servant 



[April-May 



Appleton — Carrie E. Morgan. 

While this matter is entirely new to me 
and I have not been able to give it any 
special study, on the face of it it looks 
like a very good thing and I should ap- 
prove of the introduction of such a course 
at the University, if it is to provide us 
with civic workers who are trained for 
that sort of work. 

Baraboo — A. C. Kings ford. 

I wish to thank you for sending me a 
copy of your bill, and I think very highly 
of its provisions. I will do all I can to 
further its passage. 

Stevens Point — H. C. Snyder. 

I wish to express my approval of the 
bill. It seems to me that we need specific 
training of the kind you mention very 
keenly, and I can heartily endorse your 
stand as set forth in the bill. 

Milwaukee— M. C. Potter. 

With reference to bill No. 208, S., 
concerning which you ask my opinion, 
there is no question in my mind as to tKe 
desirability of its intents and purposes. Its 
practicability would depend largely upon 
the prospects which, by the consummation 
of the plan provided for it, would open 
up to those who might be inclined to seek 
the opportunities which it offers, and to 
what extent such opportunities might be 
kept free from political contamination on 
the one hand and from the pernicious op- 
eration of uncompromising and inflexible 
civil service laws on the other. 

I certainly could not suggest a better 
way to attain the object in view than is 
indicated by the provisions of the bill 
which designate the State University as 
the proper means to the desired end. 

Fond du Lac — J. E. Robets. 

I am of the opinion that it would not 
be a bad thing for provision to be made 
so that this training course may be intro- 
duced at the University. There are many 
calls from various organizations for per- 
sons to fill such positions of secretaryship, 
etc., and there are not a great many per- 
sons available. Secondly, it seems to me 
that the provisions of the bill are wise and 



cover the ground very thoroughly. I note 
there is no mention of extra appropriation 
for this work. Perhaps it is not necessary. 
I heartily approve of this plan. 

Sheboygan — W. P. Roseman. 

This bill is a very deserving one and 
should be enacted into a law. 

There is no question but that there is 
a great need for trained young men to as- 
sist in guiding the activities in cities and 
villages along effective lines to study the 
problem of municipal and community de- 
velopment. In the past cities and com- 
munities have drifted without knowing 
where they were going. No definite line 
of action was mapped out by anybody 
and at times when they went too far in 
one direction, through a newspaper excite- 
ment they would back up and try to find 
a remedy for all of the evils that had ac- 
cumulated at once. In many places this 
resulted in a local political change. Evils 
had been allowed to run rampant until 
they became bigger than the community. 

In my opinion every community needs 
engineering, guidance and direction, needs 
someone who has made and is making a 
study of city building, community build- 
ing, municipal betterment, etc., to steer the 
activities along safe and sane lines. In this 
respect European countries are far in ad- 
vance of us. They have had expert ad- 
vice along these lines for years. They 
have made a study in their schools of 
commerce and I have often been sur- 
prised why we haven't offered a course 
along this line in our course of com- 
merce. Bill 208, S. makes provision for 
this and I sincerely hope that it may be 
passed. 

Sparta, District No. 1 — Frank C. Bray. 
I am not in favor of bill 208, S. re- 
ferred to a Committee on Education and 
Public Welfare. I hope it will not go 
through. It will make certain class of 
people officers and others not. I think 
that the average honest man from any of 
our vocations, who is first of all honest 
and living for the welfare of others, is 
good enough for any office, and I hope 
that your bill will not go out of the Com- 
mittee. 



1917] 



The Public Servant 



217 



An Organized Movement to Make Public Service a Career* 

Edward A. Fitzpatrick 



"The shame of the cities!" This ex- 
pressed the 'situation with reference to 
municipal government} not so very many 
years ago — and we seemed to acquiesce 
in the description and in the situation. 
Then commission government was pro- 
posed, and we hailed it with the delight of 
a poet when a new planet "swims into 
its ken." Everything was claimed for it. 
It was introduced and much was accom- 
plished. It had back of it the civic forces 
of the propaganda to secure it. Public 
attention was directed upon it. It worked. 
Municipal government in the commis- 
sion-governed cities was improved, and we 
seemed to see a way out of our "shame." 

But city commissions came to be an ac- 
cepted fact, just as mayors were. And 
commission-governed cities were well gov- 
erned, indifferently governed and poorly 
governed. It was soon perceived that for 
the legislative work, the new city com- 
missions were better than the old city 
councils; for the administrative work they 
were just as ineffective as the old scheme. 
Our faith in different governmental ma- 
chinery would not save us. 

The way of salvation was looked for 
in a new development: the city manager 
plan. We improved our old faith by 
adding a new article: faith in personnel. 
The critical element in the new plan was 
the city manager. He must be the best 
that can be secured. No local residence 
requirement must prevent the cities of the 
new faith, from getting the very best ia 
the country to serve them. What they 
wanted was efficient personnel! 

If cities are going to achieve social sal- 
vation, their administration must be in the 
hands of efficient public servants. Now 
efficiency presupposes training. Most of 
the present city managers were trained in 
the public service itself, many in the best 
training school for city managers there' is: 



the City of Dayton with Henry M. Waite 
as schoolmaster. The fundamental train- 
ing for the new public servants must be 
given in our public educational institu- 
tions. But it must be borne in mind that 
educational institutions must, in coopera- 
tion with public service, give these men 
practical training in the public service it- 
self. 

But simple as these steps are there was 
no general realization or appreciation of 
them. When an organized effort was 
made for the first time four years ago to 
force to the attention of college authorities 
and professors of political science the sub- 
ject of training for public service, it was 
regarded as Utopian, excellent but not 
practical. Those who were advocating 
the program were dreamers of dreams. 
Today colleges and universities all over 
the country have committees investigating 
the subject of considering or installing defi- 
nite plans. The University of Oregon 
has announced a definite plan for a School 
of Commonwealth Service. Faculty in- 
vestigating committees at Columbia Uni- 
versity and the College of the City of New 
York have made very favorable reports 
on the subject, and an alumni committee 
of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology is enthusiastic about it. Reports 
will soon be made by committees in the 
Universities of Minnesota and Texas. 
Ohio State University is considering a 
plan for training city managers. Others 
will follow The College of the City of 
New York has developed, with the co- 
operation of the City, a rather extensive 
program of training men in the service. 
The colleges and universities of Ohio 
have entered into a cooperative arrange- 
ment with the State Civil Service Com- 
mission to train men for the state service. 
Colleges like Reed College, in Oregon, 
and the University of Akron have felt the 



*Reprinted from The American City Feb., 1917. 



218 



The Public Servant 



[April-May 



spirit; of the movement and are actively 
putting it into effect in cooperation with 
their local municipalities. The movement 
is practically accepted by the colleges to- 
day as expressing a genuine social need, 
but very little is done in building up in- 
stitutional organization to supply the train- 
ing. 

The problem of training for public ser- 
vice is a mild interest of many — of col- 
lege professors and others. It must be- 
come an active vital force in our educa- 
tion and politics. It will not, however, 
be removed from the arena of academic 
discussion unless there is a genuine popu- 
lar appreciation of the need and the feasi- 
bility of training for public service, unless 
boards of trustees of universities see it 
both as a social need and a social de- 
mand, and unless the alumni of our edu- 
cational institutions manifest a live and 
active interest in it. There ought to be 
organized effort to stimulate popular ap- 
preciation and to interest particularly ail 
persons actively working for the improve- 
ment of public administration. The first 
efforts for stimulating interest on a nation- 
al scale were made by the Committee on 
Practical Training for Public Service of 
the American Political Science Associa- 
tion. Those interested in its work felt 
that a strong organization, national in 
scope and commanding respect because of 
its membership, could accomplish these 
ends. It was this knowledge of the need 
for organized effort which prompted them 
to suggest the organization of a Society 
for the Promotion of Training for Public 
Service, an organization to be made up of 
public-spirited citizens actively interested 
in the improvement of public administra- 
tion. 

In the recent campaign the question of 
trained men in the public service was a 
national political issue. The discussion 
of these questions by presidential candi- 
dates and their leading exponents in large 
cities and at country crossroads is helpful 
in forming public opinion. But while this 
political discussion of the subject is of the 
first importance, there is, nevertheless, 
need for continuous, non-partisan, non- 



political discussion and emphasis of the 
problems of public administration and of 
training for public service. There is 
need for a strong propaganda for training 
for public service. In the universities at: 
the present time one of the great dangers 
is the fact that public service training is 
fashionable, and we may have a band 
wagon instead of adequate consideration 
of the subject before action. The func- 
tion of the Society for the Promotion of 
Training for Public Service is to stimulate 
this discussion, carry it forward and pro- 
vide back of it continuous research in pub- 
lic administration and in the opportunities 
of the universities in serving the public by 
training men for public service. 

The Society for the Promotion of 
Training for Public Service is an inclu- 
sive civic organization working on a na- 
tional scale and cooperating with state and 
municipal organizations to make publip 
service a career instead of a temporary 
vocation, to provide means for training 
public servants and hence to promote and 
develop efficient public administration. 
In its effort to do these things it has 
worked on improving the machinery of 
public administration, on harnessing civil 
service reform to an educational program, 
^1 urging upon universities and other edu- 
cational institutions the necessity of train- 
ing men for public service. It finds it: 
necessary in the accomplishment of these 
purposes to urge upon universities the ne- 
cessity of taking advantage of the widest 
possible social opportunities existing in our 
contemporary organized community life 
for training men for public service. The 
affairs of the Society are in the hands of 
a board of trustees. 

The need for the upbuilding of admin- 
istration has been pointed out from sev- 
eral points of view as the greatest need of 
our democracy. There must be a new 
emphasis on law enforcement rather than 
on law-making; on carrying into effect 
the expressed will of the people rather 
than merely registering it. Public service- 
must therefore be made a career. Men 
must be trained for public service by pub- 
lic service. Universities must adopt a 



1917] 



The Public Servant 



219 



new method of education ; they must train 
men by field training — by actually doing 
the thing. The theoretical and academic 
must be supplemented by the practical. 
Practice must be enlightened by theory. 
Theory must be reinforced, adapted or 
revised by practice supplemented by re- 
flection. All these needs, particularly the 
need for the upbuilding of administration, 
! made necessary the organization of a 
large civic agency which would work on a 
national basis, in cooperation with state 
and municipal organizations throughout 
the country. Thus the Society for the 
Promotion of Training for Public Ser- 
vice was organized. It was thought ad- 
visable that the Society should plan defi- 
nitely for a five-year program- It will 
automatically go out of existence in 1 920. 
The Society was definitely organized with 
the following purposes: to publish or re- 
print and circulate helpful material on 
university or departmental training for 
public service; to cooperate with universi- 
ties and other educational institutions in 
investigating or in preparing plans for 
training for public service; to cooperate 
with existing agencies in any way which 
will make the whole or any part of the 
program effective; to stimulate gifts to the 
universities for practical training for pub- 
lic service; to prepare a national program 
for training for public service and to work 
for its adoption; to make such studies in 
connection with training for public service 
as no existing organization will undertake ; 
to help form university alumni and public 
sentiment on the necessity for training for 
public service; to formulate an ethics of 
public service and to emphasize its oppor- 



tunities as a career; to give wide public- 
ity to public service training programs, 
plans and opportunities; and to cooperate 
with governmental departments, bureaus 
and commissions in developing plans for 
further training of the men now in the ser- 
vice. 

The Conference on Universities and 
Public Service has been from the begin- 
ning an effort to provide a clearing house 
for a general discussion of the subject. 
Conferences have already been held in 
New York, Boston and Philadelphia. In 
February, 1916, there was started a 
monthly publication called The Public 
Servant, whose motto is: "There can be 
no higher ambition than that of serving 
the state, nothing more creditable than to 
serve it well.'* In it are narrated cur- 
rently the progress of the movement of 
training for public service and discussions 
of next steps and programs. It has re- 
cently been directing attention to the ex- 
traordinary situation of private civil ser- 
vice schools recruiting for the public ser- 
vice at a profit to themselves. It has also 
emphasized our comparative lack of inter- 
est in the subject of civil service and our 
great interest in the military service. It 
points out the important lessons which 
military training can teach us in training 
men for the civil service. We shall be 
glad to send a copy of this publication to 
readers of the American City. 

We welcome to membership all for- 
ward-looking persons. Membership fees 
are: Associate membership, $3.00; Ac- 
tive membership, $5.00; and Contributing 
membership, $10.00. 



(Continued from page 194) 

How Shall the Training School be 

Financed ? 

Even if no appropriation wTiatever 
were made the present bill ought to pass 
definitely authorizing the University to 
undertake this very important work. But 
an appropriation ought to be made. Two 
ways of providing for it are possible. 
One, to add an appropriation section to 
the bill ; the other, to use the regular 
budgetary channel of estimates by the 



University, review by the State Board of 
of Education, and transmission of revised 
estimates to the Finance Committee of the 
legislature for inclusion in the regular op- 
erating budget of the University. This 
latter is the procedure favored by Senator 
Barwig and the proponents of the bill, 
and a procedure the first step of which 
has already been taken, namely, the Uni- 
versity at the request of the State Board 
of Education has already submitted ten- 
tative estimates. 



220 The Public Servant [April-May 



Will You Enlist 

in the movement to make govern- 
ment prepared for ALL situations? 

Unpreparedness for war has re- 
vealed to us our amazing unre- 
paredness for peace 

Why not definitely help the move- 
ment for a trained personnel in gov- 
ernment so that government can 
meet its day-to-day necessities as 
well as the extraordinary situations 
of war? 

Why not fill out the blank belorv and 
send it along? 

The Public Servant 



Society for the Promotion of Training for Public Service 
Box 380, Madison, Wisconsin 

Enclosed please find $ for tvhich enroll me as a 

member of the S. P. T. P. S. for the year ending December, 1917. Please send 
me The Public Servant regularly. 



Name _ 
Address 



Associate i 


nembership 


$3.00 a year. 


Library 


it 


2.00 " 


Active 


<i 


5.00 " 


Contributing 


tt 


10.00 " 


Donors 


ti 


100.00 " 


Founders 




1,000.00 or more 



ftbe public Servant 

' ' There can be no higher ambition than that of serving the state, nothing more creditable than to serve it well. 



Vol 2, No. 5- 
Whole No. 
15-16 



Issued Monthly except July and August, by the 

Society for the Promotion ot Training for Public Service 

Madison, Wisconsin 



June-Sept. 

: 1917 



Chapter 412, Laws of 1917 (Wisconsin) 

SECTION 1. Section 391. 1. The board of regents of the state uni- 
versity is hereby authorized to establish and to maintain, when sufficient 
funds are available, a training school for public service. Such school 
shall be a professional school and shall be devoted to practical training 
for the administrative service of the state of Wisconsin or of any county 
or municipality therein, or of civic organizations. 

2. Persons who have satisfactorily completed the work required in the 
training school for public service shall, upon graduation, receive a proper 
university degree and a diploma in public administration stating the par- 
ticular character of their training. No person shall receive such diploma 
unless at least one-third of his total credits in such school shall be for 
actual work in municipal, county, or state departments or in quasi-public 
work and unless he shall have submitted a thesis dealing with an actual 
problem of municipal, county or state service based on actual service in or 
contact with such service and approved by .the head of the department of 
such municipality, county or state with which such problem is principally 
concerned. 

3. Any member of the faculty of the University of Wisconsin may be 
required, under rules prescribed by the regents, to give instruction in such 
school. 

4. Such school shall provide adequate supplementary training for per- 
sons now in county, municipal or state service. 

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage and publication. 



222 



The Public Servant 



[June— September 



Zbe public Servant 

EDWARD A- FITZPATRICK, Editor 
Issued Monthly by the 




Madison, Wis. 



Board of Trustees 
Charles McCarthy .... Madison, Wis. 

F. G. Young Eugene Oregon 

Winston Churchill .... Cornish, N. H. 
Clarence G. McDavitt . . . Boston, Mass. 

Will C. Hogg Houston, Texas 

Zona Gale Portage, Wis. 

Niel Gray, Jr Oswego, N. Y. 

John S. Murdock . . . Providence, R. L 

Parke R. Kolbe Akron, Ohio 

Charles M. Fassett . . . Spokane, Wash. 
Louis B. Wehle Louisville, Ky. 

Director 
Edward A. Fitzpatrick . . Madison, Wis. 



THE editor of The Public Servant 
has been placed in charge of the 
administration of the selective service law 
in the state of Wisconsin. He has given 
a great deal of time to this recently which 
explains the delay in the publication of 
this number of The Public Servant. 



DURING the next year the emphasis 
in the movement for training for 
public service will shift more sharply from 
propaganda to institutional organization — 
unless, of course, our international prob- 
lems so consume our national energy and 
national thoughts as to subordinate tem- 
porarily our national problems. We pray 
for a just ending of this frightful war in 
order that we may be about a silent re- 
construction of America to make it safe 
for democracy forever. Of course, too, 
national and international militarism must 
go first. Speed the day! 



IN the law quoted on the cover Wiscon- 
sin has taken its step toward real train- 
ing for public service. The movement, 
however, is not recent in Wisconsin. 



When Professor Richard T. Ely came to 
Wisconsin twenty years ago as head of its 
Department of Political Economy, it was 
an announced part of his program to train 
men practically for public administration. 
Conditions in the University and perhaps 
in the state, made the realization of the 
program impracticable — and conditions 
in the University are not now as favorable 
as they might be. But fortunately through- 
out the state, particularly among the city 
officials, there is a present and a growing 
interest in the subject. Pressure from 
this source will probably cause the estab- 
lishment of the training school for public 
service at Wisconsin within the next two 
years or, at least, the taking of the initial 
steps. May these things be ! 



GENEROUS financial support of the 
Society will be very welcome, in- 
deed, during the next two years. The Di- 
rector of the Society has never liked what- 
ever fund-raising he has had to do. He 
prefers much to be helpful and construc- 
tive rather than to undertake time-consum- 
ing begging even in the interest of the next 
and succeeding generations. We have 
done very little personal appealing for 
funds. We want to do as little as pos- 
sible. HELP US! 



AVERY good friend of training for 
public service, Dr. Clyde A. Duni- 
way of the University of Wyoming, has 
accepted the presidency of Colorado Col- 
lege at Colorado Springs. 



ANOTHER good friend of training 
for public service, Dr. Melvin A. 
Brannon, has resigned from the Univer- 
sity of Idaho, to assume the presidency of 
Beloit College, Wisconsin. 



Q 



UERY: How many universities 
gave honorary degrees this year to 
official public servants or others for real 
public service in the public interest? 



0. Of D. 
SEP I W1 



1917] 



The Public Servant 



223 



What Form of University Organization is Best Adapted to 
Develop and to Administer Training for Public Service? 

Charles A. Beard, 
Supervisor of Instruction, New York Training School for Public Service 



In determining what form of university 
organization is best adapted to develop 
and administer training for public service, 
we must at the outset inquire into the na- 
ture of the public service for which we 
are to train, and come to some conclu- 
sions as to the kind of training demanded 
by an efficient democracy. In other 
words, we should have definite notions 
about the functions of the institution which 
we propose to create before we decide 
upon its organization. 

It cannot be said too often or too em- 
phatically that the university school of 
public service would not have before it 
problems identical with those which are 
presented to a faculty of law, medicine or 
engineering for the simple reason that the 
public service embraces all professions 
and pursuits known to our complex mod- 
ern civilization. If we look at the pro- 
fessional service of the City of New York, 
for instance, we find the following 
groups : 

Accountants 

Architect 

Bacteriologist 

Chemist 

Dentist 

Dietitian 

Engineer 

Forester 

Lawyer 

Nurse 

Occulist 

Pathologist 

Pharmacist 

Physician 

Psychologist 

If you will take the trouble to exam- 
ine closely Table No. 1 in the "Report 



of the Committee on Municipal Service 
Survey" prepared by Dr. Frederick E. 
Breithut of City College,* you will find 
a list of the various types of civil servants 
employed by the City of New York. 
This list, beginning with arboriculturist 
and abstractor runs down through axe- 
men, chauffeurs, chaplains, computers, 
curators, disinfectors, dock-masters, finger- 
print experts, housekeepers, hydrographer, 
investigator, librarian, medical examiner, 
pension expert, professor, radiographer, 
rustic worker, silver cleaner, statistician, 
surveyor, transitman, waitress, ex-ray as- 
sistant and yeoman. Even when we 
eliminate from tHs three foot list all those 
positions that do not involve college and 
professional consideration, we find that 
enough educational complications are left 
to tax the ingenuity of the ablest university 
administrator. 

Obviously in designing a university 
school or division of public service, we 
must have an organization which in a 
way corresponds to the complexity of the 
functions it proposes to assume. By way 
of comparison, the organization of a law 
school is a simple matter. A dean and a 
faculty of specialists in the great branches 
of the law are appointed. Courses are 
laid out in accordance with the academic 
calendar. Students are taken through a 
formal program, and at the end of the 
second or third year are graduated and 
they walk out of the portals of the school 
into a law office or set out in the practice 
of the profession for themselves. If any- 
body is under the delusion that a school 
of public service can be organized on the 
same plan, he should get rid of it at once, 
for he is not only suffering from grave 



*Address before The Third National Conference of Universities and Public Ser^ 
vice at Philadelphia, Wednesday afternoon, November 15, 1916. 



224 



The Public Servant 



[ June— September 



mental disorder himself, but is liable to 
jeopardize the steadily growing movement 
in this country for scientific training for 
public service. 

In preparing for scores of different 
professions and occupations, it is clear 
that every branch of college and university 
instruction is involved. For a great many 
of the positions in the public service no 
academic training other than that which is 
already offered in the various schools is 
necessary. The problem here is not one 
of devising new courses, but rather of giv- 
ing advice and guidance to the students 
who contemplate entering government ser- 
vice, and arrange for them to secure some 
practical experience in the lines of work 
which they propose to take up. Without 
making a further analysis of the require- 
ments of the public service, we may sum- 
marize the function of a public service 
school in the following form: 

1 . Coordination and regrouping of 
courses scattered throughout various divi- 
sions of the university combining, for ex- 
ample, courses in business and public ad- 
ministration, labor and trust problems with 
courses in highway engineering or public 
health. 

2. Organization from time to time of 
new courses especially adapted to the 
growing requirements of the public service. 

3. Establishment and maintenance of a 
record filing system which will keep the 
authorities of the school up to the minute 
on the opportunities and requirements, ac- 
tual and probable of the public service. 

4. Maintenance of continuous contact 
with government officers. 

*5. Provision of a svstem of well or- 
ganized and controlled field training con- 
ducive to giving students practical exper- 
ience in the work which they will actually 
be called upon to do in the public service. 

6. Advising and directing students in 
chosen careers in the public service and 
laying out programs of instruction delib- 
erately shaped (with the fullest possible 
knowledge of the requirements of the pub- 



lic service) in such a way as to fit the 
students for the work they propose to un- 
dertake. 

These being the functions of a school 
for pubhc service it would seem that the 
following principles should be embodied 
in its organization: 

1 . It should be controlled by a board 
representing all of the schools and divi- 
sions of the university, especially engineer- 
ing, accounting and business administra- 
tion, political science, medicine, architec- 
ture and the normal school. 

2. There should be a director support- 
ed by a number of assistants chosen from 
the several technical divisions represented 
on the board. 

3. There should be a central office 
equipped with all modern appliances for 
record keeping. 

4. There should be a branch of the 
school as near as possible to the City 
Hall, and the administrative offices of the 
city in order that constant contact may be 
obtained with city officers for the purpose 
of giving the students practical experience. 

It should be the duty of the director 
and his assistants — 

a. To keep a record of all positions, 
federal, state and municipal which are at- 
tractive to college students, and the sub- 
jects and dates of approaching examina- 
tions. 

b. To confer with civil service commis- 
sioners and examiners as to relation be- 
tween university instruction and civil ser- 
vice examinations and standards. 

c. To organize in connection with the 
members of his board representing techni- 
cal schools, field work in the several di- 
visions. 

d. To study intensively the educational 
problems involved in training for pubHc 
service. 

e. To study and measure statistically 
the opportunities in the various fields of 
public service with reference to salaries at 
different ages, chances of promotion anc| 
conditions of employment, 



1917] 



The Public Servant 



225 



f. To act as vocational advisers to col- 
lege students of all grades, giving them 
positive and accurate information con- 
cerning opportunities in all branches of 
the public service, official and unofficial. 

Surely such an enterprise is worthy of 
the best talents and energies which this 
nation can produce and yet it is strange 
that in the midst of much talk about train- 
ing for military service, so little thought 
is given to the task of training and select- 



ing the great army of civil servants now 
amounting in the United States to nearly 
two millions. It is doubly strange that in 
an age of magnificent benefactions to uni- 
versities, no one has as yet had, or at least 
realized, the vision of a great school of 
public administration — an institution de- 
manded by our democracy now struggling 
heroically to become efficient enough to 
bear the burdens of a complex industrial 
and imperial civilization. 



Practical Training for Public Service: A Bibliography 

June, 1917 

Compiled by 
MABEX. R. LEWIS 

Wisconsin legislative Reference Library. 

Note — In the usual bibliographies dealing with this subject university service 
to the community is included and other parts of the nebulous fringe of numerous 
related subjects. In this bibliography we have tried to confine ourselves solely to the 
subject of training for public service. 



* Allen, William H. Helping citizens to 
understand, by official reports, expert 
city government. Experts in City 
Government, D. Appleton and Co., 
1917. 



Training men and women for pub- 
lic service. Annals of American 
Academy of Political and Social Sci- 
ence, P . 307-312, May, 1912. 

What is the best training for pub- 
lic service? The Public Servant, 
1:148-149, Dec-Jan. 1916-17. 

Abstract of address delivered before 
Third National Conference on Universi- 
ties and Public Service, 1916. 

American association of university profes- 
sors. The Public Servant, 1 : 1 36- 
143, Dec-Jan. 1916-17. 

Contains preliminary report of Com- 
mittee K regarding- the proposed na- 
tional university, with comments by the 
editor of The Public Servant. 



*This is one of a series of chapters in the book 
on "Experts in City Government" to be published 
early in the fall by D. Appleton & Company. All 
chapters from this book included in this bibli- 
ography are starred. 



American city bureau. Announcements 
of the summer school for commercial 
organization secretaries, 1916 and 
1917 sessions. 

The purpose of the Bureau is to 
train men in the practical administra- 
tion of commercial and civic organiza- 
tions. 

American political science association. 
Committee on practical training for 
public service. Preliminary report — 
American Political Science Review, 
8:su PP . 301-56, Feb. 1914. 

Proposed plan for a training 

school for public service in connection 
with any university. 1914. 1 5p. 

Second annual report, 1914: I. 

The work of the year; II. The trend 
in university education; III. The trend 
in politics ; IV. The committee on prac- 
tical training: Present and prospective; 
V. A national program for training for 
public service. 

Typewritten copy. 



226 



The Public Servant 



[ June— September 



Third annual report, 1915. Con- 
tains report of the Committee on Coop- 
eration of the National Municipal 
League. 

Typewritten copy. 

Baker, James H. Our vital problem. 
National Economic League Quarterly. 
Reprinted in The Public Servant, 
1:144, Dec-Jan. 1916-17. 

Indicates that the most vital problem 
revealed by the war is the need for 
trained men for public service. 

Baskerville, C. College of the city of 
• New York. In National Association 
of Municipal Universities. Proceed- 
ings, 1st, 1914, p. 64-66. 

Cooperative work; municipal students; 
investigations; training- for municipal 
service. 

*Beard, Charles A. Control of the ex- 
pert. Experts in City Government, D. 
j Appleton and Co., 1917. 

* How shall a training school for 

municipal service be organized? Ex- 
perts in City Government, D. Apple- 
ton and Co., 1917. 

Methods of training for public 

service. School and Society, 2 : 904 - 
911, Dec. 25, 1915. 

New York city as a political sci- 
ence laboratory. In National Confer- 
ence on Universities and Public Serv- 
ice. Proceedings, 1st, 1914, pp. 126- 
132. 

Problem of training for the pub- 
lic service. New York. Bureau of 
Municipal Research, 1915, pp. 5-14. 
(Municipal Research, No. 68, De- 
cember, 1915). 

Outline of difficulties in organization 
of. training- for public service with con- 
clusions as to changes necessary. 

Training for efficient public serv- 



Beyer, William C. How shall men be 
developed in the public service? The 
Public Servant, 1 :57-63, May, 1916. 

* Making public service attractive. 

Experts in City Government, D. Apple- 
ton and Co., 1917. 

*— - — Recent improvements on employ- 
ing side of public service. Experts in 
City Government, D. Appleton and 
Co., 1917. 

Binkerd, Robert S. New educational 
development. In National Conference 
on Universities and Public Service. 
Proceedings, 1st, 1914, p. 161-162. 

Interrelation of theory and practice. 

Blackmar, F. W. City manager a new 
career in public service. In National 
Conference on Universities and Public 
Service. Proceedings, 1 st, 1914, 
P . 274-279. 

Brauer, Herman G. Public service op- 
portunities for college graduates. Wash- 
ington Alumnus, 8:7—9, Jan. 15, 
1915. 

Training for public service. 



ice. American Academy of Political 
and Social Science. Annals, 64: 
215-226, March, 1916. 



Washington Alumnus, 10:16—18, 
June, 1916. 

Vocational training for public 

service. Washington Municipalities, 
Jan. 1915. 

Breithut, Frederick E. (The) Engineer 
in public service. New York. Bureau 
of Municipal Research and Training 
School for Public Service, part I, 
p. 1-71, Oct. 1916. (Municipal 
Research, No. 78.) 

Report of the committee of the 

College of the City of New York on 
municipal service survey. New York. 
Bureau of Municipal Research, p. 1 7— 
51. (Municipal Research, No. 68.) 

Bruere, Henry. New city government. 
Appleton, 1912. 

Suggestions for making efficient gov- 
ernment and for training for public 

service. **'i 



1.9.1 7] 



The Public Servant 



227 



Burritt, Bailey B. Occupation of college 
graduates. In National Conference on 
Universities and Public Service. Pro- 
ceedings, 1st, 1914, p. 85-88. 

The changing- professions of college- 
trained men. 

Professional distribution of college 

and university graduates. U. S. Bu- 
reau of Education, Bulletin, 1912, 
no. 19. 

*Buttenheim, Harold S. Professional 
organizations of city officials. Experts 
in City Government, D. Appleton and 
Company, 1917. 

California — Legislature. A bill to es- 
tablish a state school to train persons 
for practical service in governmental 
work of city, county and state. 1913. 
No. 716. 

Capen, Samuel P. Recent movements m 
college and university administration. 
U. S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 
1916, No. 46. 

Contains section on training for pub- 
lic service. 

Capper, Arthur. State government that 
will deliver the goods: How Kansas 
may obtain a public service without 
waste or graft that will do 100 cents 
worth of work for every dollar it costs. 
Speech at Sparks, Kansas, Aug. 26, 
1916, p. 1-24. 
Governor Capper outlines in this 

speech the basis of the demand for a 

trained public service. 

Carpenter, William H. Privately en- 
dowed universities. In National Con- 
ference on Universities and Public 
Service. Proceedings, 1st, 1914, 
P . 169-175. 

The opportunities in community serv- 
ice by every American university. 

Public service of Columbia uni- 



Chamberlain, J. P. Training for public 
service. Survey, 33:201—202, Nov. 
21, 1914. 

A letter regarding training for pub- 
lic service as outlined by E. A. Fitzpat- 
rick (q. v.), taking issue with details as 
to method but agreeing on the main is- 
sue. 

Chicago school of civics and philanthropy. 
Announcements, 1915—16. Bulletin 
No. 27, April, 1915. 

Chicago takes leadership. The public 
servant, 1 : 1 35, Dec-Jan. 1916-17. 

Gives resolution passed by Chicago 
Board of Education providing for train- 
ing for public service at Medill High 
School. 

Chicago, University of. College of com- 
merce and administration, public serv- 
ice division. Announcement for 191 4— 
15. 

Requires contact with actual condi- 
tions by requiring that student spend 
three months, accompanying his profes- 
sional training, in field work. 

Claxton, Philander P. Cooperative 
methods in education. In National 
Association of Municipal Universities. 
Proceedings, 1st, 1914, p. 18-25. 

Discusses the municipal university and 
its problems. 



Publ 



ic service as a career. 



In 



versity officers. Columbia University 
Quarterly, 16:169-182, March 1914. 

Report on public service of the fac- 
ulty of Columbia Uni versity. 



National Conference on Universities 
and Public Service. Proceedings, 1 st, 
1914, P . 63-65. 

Compares modern needs with old tra- 
ditions. 

Sound educational principle. In 

National Conference on Universities 
and Public Service. Proceedings, 1 st, 
1914, p. 22-23. 

Lays down the fundamental principle 
that practical experience added to the- 
ory leads to a sounder educational pol- 
icy. 

Cockerell, T. D. A. University in poli- 
tics. Popular Science, 79:160-164, 
Aug. 1911. 

Shows that the faculty and students 
should participate in politics in order to 
train for public service. 



228 



The Public Sei'vant 



[ June— September 



Colby, Everett. Call to battle. In Na- 
tional Conference on Universities and 
Public Service. Proceedings, 1st, 
1914, p. 24-26. 

Describes the change in university 
education. 

College of the City of New York. Re- 
port of the committee on municipal 
service survey. Dec. 31, 1915. 
Report of ways in which the college 
might be of service to the New York 
city government, (1) in preparing future 
employees; (2) in improving efficiency of 
present employees. 

^Collier, John. Citizen interest in govern- 
ment through the community center. 
Experts in City Government, D. Apple- 
ton and Co., 1917. 

Columbia university. Report of the com- 
mittee on training for public service. 
Columbia University, Bulletin, March 
27, 1915. 

Cooke, Morris L. Cooperation of the 
University of Pennsylvania and the 
Philadelphia department of public 
works. In National Conference on 
Universities and Public Service. Pro- 
ceedings, 1st, 1914, p. 191-197. 

Impressions of an engineer in 



public service. Presented before the 
Engineers Club of Philadelphia, Nov. 
16, 1915. 

* Training of men in the public 

service. Experts in City Government, 
D. Appleton and Co.. 1917. 

Croly, Herbert. Great school of political 
science. World's Work, 20:12887- 
12888, May, 1910. 

Shows need for a national school of 
political science whose object would be 
to turn out men equipped for public 
service. 

Cutting, Robert F. Democracy and a 
trained public service. In National 
Conference on Universities and Public 
Service. 1st, 1 91 4, p. 1 1 7-1 1 9. 
Training as an additional qualification 

for efficient public service. 



Dabney, Charles W. Movement for the 
modern city university in Germany. In 
National Association of Municipal Uni- 
versities. Proceedings, 1st, 1914, p. 
37-42. 

Brief historical account of the devel- 
opment of German municipal univer- 
sites; Frankfort-am-Main, Dresden. 
Cologne, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, and mu- 
nicipal training schools in Cologne, Ber- 
lin, and Dusseldorf. 

Dana, Richard H. Public service a 
career for trained experts: a possibility. 
The Public Servant, 1:51-57, May, 
1916. 

- Speech prepared for Second National 
Conference on Universities and Public 

Service, 1915. 

Davies, Joseph E. Opportunities for col- 
lege men in public service. The Wis- 
consin magazine. 13:3—7, Jan. 1916. 

Dawson, W. H. Provisions for training 
municipal officials in Germany. In 
Municipal Life and Government of 
Germany, 1914, p. 102; 105; 155- 
56. 

Dewey, J. Educational principles in- 
volved. In National Conference on 
Universities and Public Service. Pro- 
ceedings, 1st, 1914, p. 249-254. 

Discusses need for training for pub- 
lic service with methods of coordinat- 
ing theory and practice. 

Doty, F. E. A real training school for 
public service. The Public Servant, 
1 :119-121, Nov. 1916. 

Duggan, Stephen P. College of the City 
of New York and community service. 
In National Conference on Universi- 
ties and Public Service. Proceedings, 
1st, 1914, P . 156-160. 

The opportunities for community ser- 
vice in New York City. 

Dusseldorf's municipal college. National 
Municipal Review, 1 : 306-30 7, Apr. 

1912. 

Describes new school for training mu- 
nicipal officials. See also same maga- 
zine for Apr. 1914. and July, 1913. 



1917] 



The Public Servant 



229 



Education for public service being 
planned. The Public Servant, 1 :95— 
96, September, 1916. 

Describes organization of educational 
agencies of the state of Ohio to train 
men for public service and to give addi- 
tional training to those already in the 
service. 

* Experts in City Government. Edited by 
Edward A. Fitzpatrick. D. Apple- 
ton and Co., 1917. 

*Fassett, Charles M. Public utilities and 
expert city government. Experts in City 
Government, D. Appleton and Co., 
1917. 

Finley, John H. Thirtieth man. 191 1. 
Reprinted from the City College Quar- 
terly, October, 1911. 

One of every 3 men is a public serv- 
ant. Education of young men of the 
city should include training for service 
to the community. 

^Fitzpatrick, Edward A. Ethics of pub- 
lic service. Experts in City Govern- 
ment, D. Appleton and Co., 1917. 

* Existing agencies of municipal 

service training. Experts in City Gov- 
ernment, D. Appleton and Co., 1917. 

This section discusses (1) Instruction 
in Municipal Government, (?.) Trend 
Toward Effective Theoretical Instruc- 
tion. (3) Training for the Municipal 
Service, and 4) The Municipal Univer- 
sity. 

Government and social improve- 
ment Speech delivered at North Caro- 
lina Conference on Social Service, 
Raleigh, Jan. 22, 1917. 

Shows imperative need of training" for 
public service in connection with any so- 
cial welfare program. 

How can we work the university 



graduate into municipal government? 
National Municipal Review, 4:93-96, 
Jan. 1915. 

(An) Institute of political and 

administrative research. 1916. 7p. 

Reprinted from School and Society, 
March 25, 1916. 



(A) National program for train- 
ing for public service. The Public 
Servant, 1 : 3-1 0, February, 1916. 



(An) Organized movement to 

make public service a career. Ameri- 
can City, 16:1 34—1 36, February, 
1917. 

— Plan for a university extension de- 



partment. Madison, Wis., Society for 

the Promotion of Training for Public 

Service, August, 1915. 

Used as basis of discussion at Second 
National Conference on Univeristies and 
Public Service. 

Progress of the movement of train- 



ing for public service. The Public 
Servant, March, 1916, p. 19-26. 

Describes recent developments of the 
movement in various universities. 

Society for the promotion of train- 



ing for public service. Social Service 
Review, 4:16-17, October, 1916. 

Describes aims and purposes of So- 
ciety. 

Training for public service with 



special reference to training of account- 
ants. Proceedings of Seventh Annual 
Conference of Mayors and Other City 
Officials of New York State, 1916, 
p. 88—95. Also printed in Journal 
of Accountancy, 23:33-39, January, 

19T7. 

Training for the military service. 



The Public Servant, 1:87-92, Sep- 
tember, 1916. 

Shows applicability of principles of 
training for the military service to train- 
ing for the civil service. 



Training for the municipal serv- 
ice. The Public Servant, 1 : 43-45, 
April, 1916. 



Universities and training for pub- 
lic service. Survey, 32:614—15, 
Sept. 19, 1914. 



230 



The Public Servant 



[June-September 



— University training for public serv- 
ice. American Political Science Re- 
view, 8:674-79, November, 1914. 

What military training can teach 



us. Experts in City Government, D. 
Appleton and Co., 1917. 

Shows lessons which may be taken 
from training- for military service and 
applied to training- for public service. 

Foster. William T. The state-wide cam- 
pus. School and Society, 1:13-16, 
Jan. 2, 1915. 

Fuld, Leonhard F. Training men in the 
public service from the view-point of 
the civil service. The Public Servant, 
1 : 121-123, November, 1916. 

Germany's new school of civics. Ameri- 
can City, 6:562, March, 1912. 
Germany's new method of training 

public servants. 

*Gilbertson, H. S. (The) city manager 

plan in operation. Experts in City 

Government, D. Appleton and Co., 

1917. 

The city manager plan of city govern- 
ment offers the best opportunity for reaJ 
training men for the public service and 
ing conditions. 

City managership — a new career 

in public service. In National Confer- 
ence on Universities and Public Serv- 
ice. Proceedings, 1st. 1914, p. 82- 
112. 
University training of city managers. 

Graham, Edward K. The function of 
the state university. Proceedings of 
the inauguration of Edward K. Gra- 
ham as President of the University of 
North Carolina. April. 1915, p. 55- 
75. 

.Shows that whole function of any uni- 
versity is to definitely serve as an instru- 
ment of democracy and specially in 
training men for the public service and 
the professions. 

Gray, John H. Public administration 
and practical training for public serv- 
ice. In National Conference on Univer- 



sities and Public Service. Proceedings, 
1st, 1914, p. 45-56. 

Reciprocal benefits of training for 
public service to city and university. 

Gruenberg, Benjamin. What are the op- 
portunities before the high schools cf 
the country in training men for public 
service and for efficient citizenship. 
School and Society, 5:5 77-582, iMay 
19, 1917. 

Gruenberg, Frederick P. Why do men 
leave the public service? The Public 
Servant, 1 : 1 49-1 53, Dec-Jan. 1916 
-1 7. (Also printed in Experts in City 
Government.) 

Paper read at Third Xational Confer- 
ence on Universities and Public Service. 
1916. 

Hadley, Arthur T. Facilities for study 
and research in the offices of the U. S. 
Government. U. S. Bureau of Educa- 
tion, Bulletin, 1909, No. 1. 
Shows increasing opportunities for re- 
search at Washington. 

(The) University and the nation. 

Yale Alumni Weekly, 25:585-86. 
February 4. 1916. 

^Haines, Charles G. (The) New con- 
tent — administration. Experts in City 
Government, D. Appleton and Co., 
1917. 

This chapter shows the need for em- 
phasis on the administrative as "well as 

the structural side of government. 

Haldane, R. B. Civic university. Hib- 

bert Journal, 1 1 :233-254, Jan. 1 91 3. 

Also reprinted, May, 1913. 

An address to the citizens of Bristol 

with mention of German and British 

municipal universities. Describes the 

functions of a modern city university. 

Civic university. Nature, 90: 



225-226, October 24, 1912. 

Hamilton, Frederick W. How can class 
gifts to universities be made to empha- 
size the social function of the university 
and to stimulate training for the public 
service? School and Society, 3:445- 
449, March 25, 1916. 



1917] 



The Public Servant 



231 



Harvard University. School for health 
officers. General announcement, 1915 
-16. 

Object of school is to prepare men for 
public health work, especially to fit them 
for administrative and executive posi- 
tions. 

Hasse, Adelaide R. Schools giving in- 
struction in municipal administration in 
Germany. National Municipal Re- 
view, 3:402-403, April 1, 1916. 

A list of German schools for training 
city officials. 

Heaton, J. P. School for mayors. Sur- 
vey, 27:1340-1341, Dec. 9, 1911. 

Discusses work of New York (city) 
Bureau of Municipal Research. 

Hicks, Frederick C. Ideal municipal 
university. In National Conference on 
Universities and Public Service. Pro- 
ceedings, 1st, 1914, p. 120-125. 

The ideals of the University of Cincin- 
nati. 

Holcombe, A. N. Harvard point of 
view. In National Conference on Uni- 
versities and Public Service. Proceed- 
ings, 1st, 1914, p. 255-266. 

Practical training - for public service, 
with discussion as to university credit. 

Howe, Frederick C. Rule of the ex- 
pert. Outlook, 101 :946-953, Aug. 
24, 1912. 

Expert administrators and their work 
in Germany, England and the United 
States. 

Jacobs, J. L. Public service opportunity 
and preparedness. Journal of the West- 
ern Society of Engineers, 21 :495- 
526, June, 1916. 

James, Edmund J. Professional train- 
ing for important positions in the public 
service. In National Conference on 
Universities and Public Service. Pro- 
ceedings, 1st, 1914, p. 269-273. 
(Also printed in Public Servant, 2: 
159-161, Feb. 1917.) 

Brief historical account; the German 
solution and the situation in the United 
States. 



James, Herman G. Announcement of 
courses in municipal administration at 
the University of Texas, Austin, Uni- 
versity of Texas, 1914. (Municipal 
research series, No. 3, September 5, 
1914.) 

* Building on to present profes- 
sional training. Experts in City Gov- 
ernment, D. Appleton and Co., 1917. 

City's need, the university's op- 
portunity. American City, 10:247- 
249, March 1914. 

Adapting university to community 
needs. 

Training for public service at the 

University of Texas. In National 
Conference on Universities and Public 
Service. Proceedings, 1st, 1914, p. 
1 98-220. 

Describes the work of the University 
of Texas in training men for the public 
service, with discussion of the proposed 
school of municipal administration. 

Universities and good city govern- 
ment. Alcalde, 2:158-163, Dec. 
1913. 

In this number Dr. James pleads for 
systematic training of experts in munici- 
pal administration. 

University training for municipal 



administration. Austin, University of 
Texas, 1915. (Municipal research 
series, No. 11, August 20, 1915.) 
The university as a training school for 
public service. 

Jenks, Jeremiah W. Cooperation between 
city governments and universities. Na- 
tional Municipal Review, 3:764—766, 
October, 1914. 



New York University, New York 

City. In National Association of Mu- 
nicipal Universities. Proceedings, 1st, 
1914, pp. 44-46. 

Brief description of cooperation be- 
tween city and university. 

University professors helping gov- 



ernment — a brighter side. In National 



232 



The Public Servant 



[ June— September 



Conference on Universities and Public 
Service. Proceedings, 1 st, 1914, p. 
57-59. 

Influence of college professor in actu- 
al governmental affairs. 

What a college of administration 



might do for New York. In National 
Conference on Universities and Public 
Service. Proceedings, 1 st, 1914, p. 
146-155. 

Describes need of a college of mu- 
nicipal administration in New York City 
for practical training of the city officials. 

Johnson, A. Training for public service. 
Survey, 26:755-757, Aug. 26, 1911. 

Plea for the trained servants in pub- 
lic positions as necessary as in private 
life. 

King, Clyde L. Appointment and selec- 
tion of governmental experts. National 
Municipal Review, 2:304-315, April 
1914. 

* (The) City office as a training 



school for public service. Experts in 
City Government, D. Appleton and 
Co., 1917. . 

Cooperation between universities 



and cities. National Municipal Re- 
view, 5:122-123, January, 1916. 

Local residence requirement for 



public omce. Public Servant, Febru- 
ary, 1916, p. 10-15. (Also printed 
in Experts in City Government, 1917) 

Show advantages of employing expert 

and efficient men without regard to resi- 
dence. 

Public services oF trie college and 

university expert. Annals of American 
Academy, September, 1916, p. 291 — 
96. 

Training for municipal service. 



Scientific American (supplement), 79: 
118-119, February 20, 1915. 

How public business is conducted ef- 
ficiently and without waste in German 
cities. 

Training for the municipal serv- 



nal of the American Society of Me- 
chanical Engineers, 1914. 

Describes work of German universi- 
ties in relation to municipal service. 

*Kolbe, Parke R. (The) Method of 
training — cooperative, part-time. Ex- 
perts in City Government, D. Apple- 
ton and Co., 1917. 

Leathes, S. Universities and the public 
service. Nineteenth Century, 72:1260 
-1267, December, 1912. 

Discusses the kind of education need- 
ed to train public servants. 

Lindsay, Samuel M. New York as a 
sociological laboratory. In National 
Conference on Universities and Public 
Service. Proceedings, 1 st, 1914, p. 
133-138. 

The opportunities in New York for the 
study of social problems and their legis- 
lative aspects. 

Lowell, A. Lawrence. . Administrative 
experts in municipal government. Na- 
tional Municipal Review, 4:26—32, 
January, 1915. 

Expert administrators in popular 

government. American Political Sci- 
ence Review, January, 1913, p. 45— 
62. 

* (The) Need for the expert. 



Experts in City Government, D. Apple- 
ton and Co., 1917. 

— Public opinion and popular gov- 



ice in Germany. Reprint from the Jour- 



ernment. 

Contains two chapters on expert ad- 
ministrators in government. 

Macadam, Elizabeth. Universities and 
the training of the social worker. Hib-^ 
bert Journal, 12:283-94, January, 
1914. 

McCarthy, Charles. (The) New educa- 
tion and the new public service. The 
Public Servant, 2 : 1 63-1 65, February, 
1917. 

Abstract of address before Third Na- 
tional Conference on Universities and 
Public Service. 



1917] 



The Public Servant 



233 



Plan for the committee on prac- 
tical training for public service. In 
National Conference on Universities 
and Public Service. Proceedings, 1st, 
1914, p. 243-248. 

Training- for public service; outline of 
proposed plan. 

Upbuilding of administration: the 



greatest need of American democracy. 
In National Conference on Universities 
and Public Service. Proceedings, 1st, 
1914, p. 33-45. 

Gives the reasons for practical train- 
ing* for public service from the adminis- 
trative viewpoint. 

Wisconsin idea. Macmillan, 



1912. 

Shows great need for experts in order 
;o secure efficient administration. 

McClure, Samuel S. Public service as a 
career. In National Conference on 
Universities and Public Service. Pro- 
ceedings, 1st, 1914, p. 66-67. 

Efficient city government and a trained 

public service. 

McCormick, Samuel B. Should univer- 
sities organize institutes of political re- 
search on the plan of the Mellon Insti- 
tute of Industrial Research? School 
and Society, 3:433-436, March 25, 
1916. 

McVey, Frank L. Relation of the uni- 
versities to public service. School and 
Society, 3:41 1-416, March 18, 1916. 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 
Report of the committee on organized 
cooperation between the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology and the Com- 
monwealth of Massachusetts. Alumni 
Association of Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology Bulletin No. 3, 1914. 

Michigan, University of. Program of 
courses in municipal administration, 
of Michigan, Bulletin, 16, 
'915. 



Mitchel, John P. Universities and the 
public service. In National Conference 
on Universities and Public Service. 
Proceedings, 1st, 1914, p. 19-21. 

Mayor of New York City states his 
conclusions: that closer cooperation be- 
tween universities and city government 
is needed for three purposes: (1) To 
give university students practical knowl- 
edge of government: (2) to secure a 
trained public service; (3) to solve gov- 
ernmental problems. 

Munroe, J. P. Demand for trained citi- 
zens. In his New demands in educa- 
tion, p. 156-171. Doubleday, 1912. 

Shows that there would be more 
trained citizens in public service if more 
attention were paid to this subject in 
the elementary and high school grades. 

Munro, William B. Instruction in muni- 
cipal government in the universities and 
colleges of the U. S. National Muni- 
cipal Review, 2:427-38, July, 1913. 

National association of corporation 
schools. Educational plan for city 
employees: N. Y. mayor approves of 
plan whereby workers in various depart- 
ments can help solve problems that vex 
executives. Bulletin, August, 1914, 
p. 33-35. 

National conference on universities and 
public service. Universities and public 
service. Proceedings, 1st, 1914, 289p. 
Dec. -Jan. 1916-17. 

Conference held under auspices of 
Committee on Practical Training for 
Public Service of the American Political 
Science Association. 

College and the city. (Reprint 



of a part of the Proceedings, 1st, 
1914) 75p. 

In addition contains proposed plans for 
a training school for public service. 

National municipal league. Report of 
committee on cooperation appointed by 
the League to work with the committee 
on practical training for public service 
of the American political science asso- 
ciation. 1915. 
Typewritten copy. 



234 



The Public Servant 



[ June— September 



National university for training for public 
service. The Public Servant, 1:155, 

New York City's government by experts. 
Review of Reviews, 49:171-178, 
February, 1914. 

How experts are making the municipal 
government more efficient. 

New York (city) Bureau of municipal 
research. Training for municipal serv- 
ice. Municipal Research, No. 68, 
December, 1915. 

New York (city) Bureau of municipal 
research. Training school for public 
service. Annual reports, 1911 to date. 

Program of courses and field 

work: (I) Civic secretaries, (II) 
Teachers of government and politics, 
(III) City managers and administra- 
tive officers, (IV) Journalists, (V) 
Chamber of commerce secretaries, and 
(VI) Legal specialists. 

New York (city) training school for com- 
munity center workers. General an- 
nouncements, 1915-16; 1916-17. 

New York University. Health officers 
correspondence course in hygiene- and 
sanitation. Calendar, September 1 1 , 

1915, p. 1-3. 

Announcement of course in public 
health problems for health officers actu- 
ally in service. 

Opportunities for trained men in public 
service. American City, 8: 231, Feb- 
ruary, 1913. 

Park, Clyde W. The cooperative system 
of education as developed in college of 
engineering, University of Cincinnati. 
U. S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 

1916, No. 37. 

Contains application of cooperative 
plan to other fields. 

Paxton, Edward T. Rutgers men and 
the public service. Rutgers Alumni 
Quarterly, 2:13-19, October 1915, 
24 p. 



* Pollock, Willits. Use of the expert in. 

present city government. Experts in 
City Government, D. Appleton and 
Co., 1917. 

Practical and specific training of men for 
public service. Why? The Public 
Servant, 2:175-192, March, 1917. 
Presents arguments for and questions 
regarding the establishment of a train- 
ing school for public service at the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin. 

Progress in the universities. The Public 
Servant, 1 : 77-78, June, 1916. 

Indicates recent steps taken by uni- 
versities to prepare the' way for training 
for public service. 

Public Servant (The). Monthly bulle- 
tin of the society for the promotion of 
training for public service. Madison, 
Wis. Edited by Edward A. Fitzpat- 
rick. 

Recruiting for the public service (2 pts) 
The Public Servant: No. 1, June,. 
1916; No. 2, September, 1916. 

Shows absurdity of private recruiting 
by civil service schools for the public 
service. 

Reed, T. H. Government for the people. 

New York. H. B. Huebsch, 1915. 

Place •of experts in state and local ad- 
ministration, p. 19 4-214. 

Robbins, E. C. Proposed school of com- 
monwealth service. Commonwealth: 
Review of the University of Oregon, 
January, 1916. 

* Robinson, Frederick B. University co- 

operation. Experts in City Govern- 
ment, D. Appleton and Co., 1917. 

Relates particularly to training in the 
service. 

Ross, Edward A. Public service activi- 
ties of state supported universities: a 
record of what is being done. In Na- 
tional Conference on Universities and 
Public Service. Proceedings, 1st, 
1914, p. 176-184. 



917] 



The Public Servant 



235 



* Urbanization and its attendant 

problems. Experts in City Government, 
D. Appleton and Co., 1917. 

Shows that as cities continue to grow 
there is imperative need of some kind 
of training - for public service. 

Rucker, W. C. United States public 
health service as a career. United 
States Public Health service puLUca- 
tion, No. 13, 1914. 

Ruediger, William C. Agencies for the 

improvement of teachers in service. U. 

S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 

1911, No. 3. 

Contains suggestions for training other 

public servants besides teachers. 

Ruggles, Allen M. Training in public 
service as conducted by the Wisconsin 
civil service commission. The Public 
Servant, 1:124-130, November, 
1916. 

* What education has to teach us 

regarding public service in general. Ex- 
perts in City Government, D. Apple- 
ton and Co., 1917. 

Schneider, Herman. Education and in- 
dustrial peace. Annals of the Ameri- 
can Academy, 44 : 1 1 9-1 29, Novem- 
ber, 1912. 
Shows the necessity of educating men 

for public service. 

Municipal universities. In Na- 
tional Conference on Universities and 
Public Service. Proceedings, 1st, 
1914, p. 184-188. 

The coordination of theory and prac- 
tice based on the University of Cincin- 
nati system. 

Philosophy of the cooperative 

method. In National Association of 

Municipal Universities. Proceedings, 

1st, 1914, p. 25-26. 

Reasons for extension of university's 
functions. 

Schwedtman, Ferdinand C. (The) 

Making of better trained men. The 

Americas, 2:5-9, November, 1915. 

Describes educational scheme of Na- 
tional City Bank to meet the growing op- 
portunities in international banking. 

Training men in the banking field: 

an account of what the National city 



bank of New York is doing. In Na- 
tional Association of Corporation 
Schools Bulletin, March, 1916, p. 21 
-27. 
Shiels, Albert. Opportunity of the col- 
lege of the city of Ne\v York. In Na- 
tional Conference on Universities and 
Public Service. Proceedings, 1st, 
1914, p. 139-145. 

Smith, Z. D. Field work. In National 
Conference of Charities and Correc- 
tion, 1915. Reprint No. 49. 

Society for the promotion of training for 
public service. Aims and purposes of 
the society. Madison, Wis. 1915. 
Outlines work of the Society. 

Constitution. (1915) 

Public Servant. Monthly bulle- 
tin of Society. 

Stowe, A. Monroe. Training for public 
service. School and Society, 5:112— 
1 13, January 27, 1917. 

Suggestions and recommendations of the 
special committee on training for public 
service appointed by President Butler 
of Columbia University. The Public 
Servant, 1:27-30, March, 1916. 

Thum, William. A forward step. 
Twentieth Century Company, Boston, 
Mass. 1910. 235p. 

constructive plan for high 



Contains 
schools. 



a 



Training for efficiency in the public serv- 
ice. Equity, 18:110-111, July, 
1916. 

Training for public service. New Repub- 
lic, 7:240-241, July 8, 1916. 

Training students for New York munici- 
pal service. The American City, 14: 
490, May, 1916. 

U. S. Bureau of education. Report of 
commissioner of education, 1916. 
Contains general statement on training 

for public service, pp. 134-136. 

(The) University and the municipality. 
Summary of proceedings of first ses- 
sion of national association of muni- 



236 



The Public Servant 



[ June— September 



cipal universities. U. S. Bureau ot 
Education, Bulletin, 1915, No. 38. 

University training for public service. A 
report of the meeting of the association 
of urban universities, November 15-17, 
1915. Bureau of Education, Bulle- 
tin, No. 30, 1916. 

University training for public service. 
American Political Science Review, 8: 
674-679, November, 1914. 

Wallace, George R. Methods of train- 
ing for public service. Speech before 
Association of Urban Universities, Cin- 
cinnati, November 16, 1915. 

Walsh, David I. (The) Young man 
and public life. America, 12: 457- 
458, February 2, 1915. 

Washburn, W. S. College men in the 
public service. Science, 34:589-593, 
November 3, 191 1. 
Shows the opportunities offered by the 

United States government for trained 

men, 

Western Reserve University. Division of 
municipal administration and public 
service in the school of applied social 
sciences. Announcement for 1916—17, 

New course deals with the civic prob- 
lems of the present day in their politi- 
cal, legislative and administrative as- 
pects. Three-fifths training in real 
practical work required. 

What are you going to do about it? The 

Public Servant, 1 : 72-76. June, 1916. 

Actual correspondence received by 
Editor of The Public Servant shows 
great need of training for public serv- 
ice. 

Whittaker, Annie E. Texas women in 
municipal service. The Public Serv- 
ant, 1:93-95, September, 1916. 

^Wilcox, Delos F. Inadequacy of pres- 
ent city government. Experts in City 
Government, D. Appleton and Co., 
1917. 

Wilcox, Walter F. How may the de- 
mand for demographers and the sup- 
ply of them in the United States be in- 



creased? Reprinted from Transactions 
of Fifteenth International Congress on 
Hygiene and Demography, held at 
Washington, D. C. Sept. 23-28, 
1912, p. 1-7. 

Williams, Burt. Making chambers of 
commerce socially efficient. The Pub- 
lic Servant, 1:36-42. April, 1916. 

Wisconsin — legislature. Act passed by 
legislature providing for the establish- 
ment of a training school for public 
service at the University of Wisconsin. 
1917. Chap. 412. 

Bills introduced by Senator Bar- 
wig and Assemblyman Evjue providing 
for the establishment of a training 
school for public service at the Univer- 
sity of Wisconsin. 1917. Nos. 208, 
S., and 155, A. 

Wisconsin civil service commission. Sixth 
biennial report covering work done from 
July, 1914 to July, 1916. Madison, 
Wis. 
Contains section devoted to training 

in the service. 

Wisconsin free library commission. In- 
struction in library administration and 
public service. 1913. 

Announcement of courses in the li- 
brary school for public service training 
in municipal reference and public com- 
mission work. 

Woodruff, Clinton R. Civil service re- 
form as a factor in making public 
service a career. In National Confer- 
ence on Universities and Public Serv- 
ice. Proceedings, 1st, 1914, p. 78— 
85. 

* New view of municipal govera- 

ment. Experts in City Government, 
D. Appleton and Co., 1917. 

* Wide scope of municipal im- 
provement. Experts in City Govern- 
ment, D. Appleton and Co., 1917. 

Young, F. G. Proposed commonwealth 
service in the University of Oregon. 
University of Oregon, 1912. 



1917] 



The Public Servant 



237 



Forward Steps in Civil Service 



The material in this section is ta\en 
with little change from reports submitted 
by the secretaries of the various civil serv- 
ice commissions. In some cases it has 
been necessary to condense or digest the 
subject matter of these reports, but in so 
far as possible the language of the writer 
has been preserved. Comments are not 
necessary to indicate the significance of 
what follows, for the future of the civil 
service movement. 

Efficiency of Civil Service Employes. 

"During the month of November (the 
California Commission) sent out seven 
hundred twenty-five reports of perform- 
ance to the various heads of departments 
of the state government. These reports 
were requested for persons who had been 
certified to the service from eligible Hsts 
created after examination, and who had 
been in the employ of the department not 
less than three months. Forty-seven ap- 
pointing powers returned these reports, 
with comments on seven hundred twenty- 
five employes. A summary of these re- 
ports showed that 49 per cent of the sev- 
en hundred twenty-five were doing excel- 
lent or exceptional work; 42 per cent 
thorough'y satisfactory work; 6 per cent 
fair or not wholly satisfactory work; and 
2 per cent poor work. This means that 
92 per cent of the employes that have 
been certified to the service have been thor- 
oughly satisfactory and better." 

Cooperation of College and Civil Service 
Commission in Ohio. 

In the September, 1916, number of the 
Public Servant, there was a brief account 
of the work being done by the Ohio Civil 
Service Commission together with its Ad- 
visory Board on training for public serv- 
ice. In connection with that work the 



following resolution passed by the Ohio 
College Association is of interest: 

WHEREAS, the present world condi- 
tions demand the highest and most effi- 
cient type of service in behalf of the pub- 
lic welfare on the part of every citizen 
of Ohio, and 

WHEREAS, the State Civil Service 
Commission of Ohio has taken an ad- 
vanced stand on questions of public ad- 
ministration as related to its work and has 
made a careful survey of the public serv- 
ice of the state as a basis for increasing 
the effectiveness of employment methods 
and employment control, and 

WHEREAS, the said Commission has 
recognized the necessity of training for 
more effective service, and greater useful- 
ness of those already in the employ of the 
state as well as for those who may here- 
after enter the various vocations and pro- 
fessions represented in the public service 
of Ohio by calling to its assistance an Ad- 
visory Board on Education for the Pub- 
lic Service composed of some of our lead- 
ing educators, and 

WHEREAS, the said Commission has 
requested the appointment by the Ohio 
College Association of a committee of 
three college men who have made a study 
of selective methods and vocational guid- 
ance to serve with an equal number of 
practical employment men from the in- 
dustrial world, as a committee to study 
and improve upon the methods of selection 
now used by the Civil Service Commis- 
sion and private corporations. 

Be it Therefore Resolved by the 
Ohio College Association that we heartily 
endorse the work of the State Civil Serv- 
ice Commission and its Advisory Board on 
Education and pledge our active support 
and cooperation in whatever way may be 
necessary or desirable in order to advance 
the cause of education in and for the pub- 



238 



The Public Servant 



[ June— September 



lie service, and that the President of the 
Association be authorized to appoint the 
three persons to assist the State Civil Serv- 
ice Commission, as requested. 

Inspiring Respect for Civil Service 
Methods 

The State Civil Service Commission of 
Ohio "in line with its policy of seeking 
the competent council on all important 
problems" has adopted the "Advisory 
Board" idea. By means of these boards 
appointed by the Commission it secures 
sympathetic constructive criticism from 
business men and educators who have con- 
sidered the problems of employment and 
efficiency from this angle and who are in 
close touch with the most successful meth- 
ods as applied to private business. 

The members of the boards contribute 
time and energy to the work without com- 
pensation. Their interest and enthusiasm 
has been splendidly shown by the regu- 
larity of their attendance at the confer- 
ences already held. Following is given 
the personnel of the three boards. 

Advisory Board on Examinations. 

George B. Selby, Shoe Manufacturer 
of Portsmouth. 

L. J. Taber, Master of the Ohio State 
Grange. 

Dr. J. Knox Montgomery, President 
of Muskingum College. 

Dr. W. G. Clippinger, President of 
Otterbein University. 

Advisory Board on Efficiency. 

Mr. E. A. Deeds, President of the 
Delco Company, Dayton. 

Mr. Wm. Cooper Proctor, of The 
Proctor & Gamble Company, Cincinnati. 

Mr. S. P. Bush, President and Gen- 
eral Manager, the Buckeye Steel Cast- 
ings Co., Columbus. 

Mr. Thomas Coughlin, Banker, and 



formerly Director of Finance of Cleve- 
land. 

Mr. E. M. Fullington, formerly State 
Auditor, State Budget Commissioner and 
at present State Tax Commissioner. 



Advisory Board on Education. 

Dr. Chas. Wm. Dabney, President, 
University of Cincinnati. 

Dr. W. O. Thompson, President, Ohio 
State University. 

Dr. Parke R. Kolbe, President, Mu- 
nicipal University of Akron. 

Professor A. R. Hatton, of Western 
Reserve University and J. H. Cooke, As- 
sistant Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion for the State of Ohio. 



Beginning in the Right Place in Seattle 

"A noticeable interest on the part of 
school children of Seattle, of the higher 
grammar school grades, is shown in the 
study of municipal government. 

"Class discussions and the writing of 
essays have been encouraged by teachers, 
with emphasis on civil service features, 
leading to a marked demand for civil serv- 
ice literature. In order to supply this de- 
mand the local commission offered the 
Board of Education fifty copies of its re- 
port for the year 1913 (the last one pub- 
lished) for the use of the seventy-four 
city schools. This offer was promptly ac- 
cepted and the books are now in use. 

"During the last few years night school 
classes have been conducted in various 
public schools during the winter months, 
the registration for the last season being 
7,222. Several of these classes, teaching 
English, mathematics, drawing, physics, 
etc., have taken into consideration the 
needs of the public service in several of 
its branches, the teachers keeping in touch 
with the demands of the various city em- 
ployments." 



1917] 



The Public Servant 



239 



Excellent for Imitation and Development. 

The following taken from a circular 
letter issued by the Wisconsin Civil Serv- 
ice Commission presents a plan that is now 
being tried out by the Commission. It is 
considered a success. 

"The value of the apprenticeship prin- 
ciple in private enterprise is universally 
recognized. Is it not equally applicable 
to public business? 

"In many of the state departments the 
services of another person for a short 
period occasionally, while not absolutely 
necessary, is desirable. 

4 'On the other hand there are those in 
continuation and commercial schools who 
would gladly welcome the opportunity of 
coming into contact with the actual work 
of the capitol offices, giving their services 
in exchange for the experience and prac- 
tical instruction received. 

"The Wisconsin Civil Service Com- 
mission is now in a position to supply to 
departments these working students under 
the following rules: 

"1. Only those recommended accord- 
ing to regular form by the head of the 
school attended shall be considered for 
this work; 

2. Services in any one department, un- 
der these provisions, shall be limited to 
two weeks ; 

3. No monetary compensation shall be 
allowed those working under this plan; 

4. In requesting the services of one of 
these working students the department offi- 
cer is asked to state the nature of the work 
to which the student will be assigned and 
the civil service commission will then sup- 
ply the student best fitted for the work 
designated; 

5. A report on the services of each 
working student shall be made to the civil 
service commission by the department in 
which the student serves. A copy of 
such report will be forwarded by the civil 
service commission to the head of the 
school attended by the student; 



6. Schools taking advantage of this op- 
portunity shall make all arrangements 
through the civil service commission." 

Illinois reports that "In 1916, 167 
examinations were held as compared with 
122 in 1915. The number of applica- 
tions received in 1916 was smaller than 
in 1915, even though the number of ex- 
aminations was much larger. The begin- 
ning of the decrease exactly corresponds 
with the revival in various industries and 
lines of business in 1915, although in that 
year the highest record in number of appli- 
cants was attained. In 1 9 1 6 the shortage 
in labor, which was general in certain 
lines of industry, was felt by the state, 
and even the greater number of examina- 
tions and the superior attraction of posi- 
tion failed to maintain the number of per- 
sons offering themselves for examination." 

Remedying a Weak Spot in Civil Service. 

"Commencing last September the (Illi- 
nois) Commission took steps to reduce the 
temporary employment evil. At first it 
was difficult to secure a reduction in the 
number of these positions, but steady pres- 
sure was brought to bear and the number 
gradually became smaller. Finally, on 
March 6, the Commission entered an or- 
der which, it is thought, will almost com- 
pletely do away with temporary employes, 
except where emergencies exist. This 
order notifies appointing officers that the 
Commission, after March 3 1 , will not ap- 
prove the issuance of any temporary em- 
ployment permit, and in case there is any 
temporary position which must be filled, 
it will, as far as possible, fill the position 
from the eligible list for that place, and 
will not approve the employment of any 
temporary person except where an actual 
emergency exists, which is proved and 
which can not be filled from an eligible 
list. 

" 1 he same order calls to the attention 
of the appointing officers that the Civil 



240 



The Public Servant 



[ June— September 



Service law and rules give no authority 
whatever for the employment of persons 
in advance of the receipt of authority 
from the Commission, except where an 
actual emergency exists, and that in the 
future no pay will be approved for per- 
sons so employed." 

Personal Service Conference Croup. 

"On February 26, the Secretary of the 
Illinois Commission attended a meeting at 
the office of the Bureau of Municipal Re- 
search in New York City, at which an in- 
formal conference group was formed, 
which it is thought will benefit Civil Serv- 
ice Commissions, and persons and Bu- 
reaus interested in the development of good 
Public Service by furnishing means for 
the collection of information concerning 
experiences in dealing with the problems 
met in the Public Service, and in furnish- 
ing help and advice in time of need, so 
that a member on meeting a new problem 
will not have to work it out for himself 
but can obtain the benefit of the experience 
and advice of others. 

"Somewhat along the same line has 
been a movement among members of the 
National Assembly of Civil Service Com- 
missioners which has emanated from the Il- 
linois Commission. In the past the meet- 
ings of the National Assembly of Civil 
Service Commissioners have been largely 
set speeches on the same subjects which 
were discussed the year before, most of 
them having to do with subjects on which 
there is no debate whatever among persons 
familiar with the merit system. The rea- 
son for this situation is that a large part 
of the attendance at the Assembly has 
been made up of members of Commis- 
sions who vary from year to year, and 
who frequently go over the same program, 
thinking that they are doing something 
new, since they were not present when it 
was discussed a year or two years before. 

"It was proposed to the Program Plan- 
ning Committee of the National Assembly 



by the Illinois Commission, and backed up 
with statements of approval from practi- 
cally all other Commissions, that at least 
a part of the next session of the National 
Assembly in Boston, be set aside for 
round table discussions of the routine 
problems met by Secretaries and Chief 
Examiners of Commissions in handling 
their everyday work. By this is not 
meant a discussion of matters of policy, 
but rather the experience of members in 
actually working out short cuts, inexpen- 
sive methods and means of handling ac- 
curately and efficiently every detail of their 
work. 

"As the result, one day has been set 
aside for discussion of such problems, and 
with this start undoubtedly better results 
will be obtained in another year." 

Personal. 

Mr. J. B. Ogg, who has been princi- 
pal of the schools in Palmyra, 111., for 
several years, has been appointed Assist- 
ant Examiner of the Illinois Civil Service 
Commission. Mr. William B. Calkins, 
who has been Assistant Examiner for sev- 
eral years, resigned this month to take a 
teaching position in the Chicago public 
schools. 

A Self Explanatory Extract. 

"We desire to add a few words bear- 
ing upon the fact that the ensuing year 
will witness the statutory termination of 
the sixth year of service of Mr. Fred C. 
Heuchhng as Superintendent of Employ- 
ment and member of the Civil Service 
Board. Mr. Heuchling was appointed 
by the previous administration and upon 
our appointment as members of the Civil 
Service Board the opportunity occurred to 
us to come into a closer observance of the 
high character of his work and of his abil- 
ity to administer it. It is extremely grati- 
fying to recognize merit and to commend 
him for reappointment, both because of 
the value of his services rendered to the 



1917] 



The Public Servant 



241 



West Chicago Park Commissioners and 
because of his activities and zeal in the 
broadest field of civil service, always 
building for efficiency in public service, 
which policy the West Chicago Park 
Commissioners have pursued. 
(Signed) 

William F. Grower, 
Chairman Civil Service Board, 
and President Board of West 
Chicago Park Commissioners. 

Edward Mullen, 
Member Civil Service Board 
and of Bord of West Chicago, 
Park Commissioners." 

We have received some very interest- 
ing material from the Los Angeles Coun- 
ty (F. E. Doty, Secretary), the Cali- 
fornia (J. C. Whitman, Secretary), and 
the Wisconsin (John A. Hazelwood, 
Secretary), Civil Service Commissions on 
psychological tests in civil service examina- 
tions. We are omitting this material from 
this number because we look forward dur- 
ing the next year to a comprehensive dis- 
cussion of the whole problem, its oppor- 
tunities and its dangers. 

W. D. Johnston of the St. Paul Pub- 
lic Library read a stimulating paper be- 



fore the American Library Association on 
the subject "Should Libraries be Under 
the General Civil Service of the State, or 
have a Separate Civil Service Organiza- 
tion?" We are planning to include it 
in our next number of "The Public Serv- 
ant." Those interested in civil service 
will dissent vigorously from two of his 
propositions, as we do. But this begin- 
ning of an "entente cordiale" between li- 
braries and civil service ought to be en- 
couraged. We shall start the ball a'roll- 
ing by printing Mr. Johnston's paper. 

We are planning to include in the next 
number of "The Public Servant," for 
purposes of criticism, a draft of a practi- 
cal civil service law, submitted by a com- 
mittee of the Society for the Promotion 
of Training for Public Service, consist- 
ing of Miles Riley, head of the Wiscon- 
sin Legislative Drafting Department, Ed- 
ward A. Fitzpatrick, director of the So- 
ciety for the Promotion of Training for 
Public Service, and John B. Steven, as- 
sistant chief examiner of the Wisconsin 
State Civil Service Commission. A be- 
ginning ought to be made in the thirty- 
eight states which do not have civil service 
commissions. A practical law is a neces- 
sary first step. 



The greatest problem and the immediate problem of civil 
service reform is training for public service. And what calls 
itself civil service reform seems to be unconscious of it. 



242 



The Public Servant 



[June—September 



Women and trie Administration of Putlic Business: An 
Opportunity for the General Federation of 
Women's Clubs 



By Lucretia L. Blankenburg 
Chairman of Publicity Committee of The General Federation of Women's Clubs 



There is no real reason why women 
should not hold public office. They are 
educated ; more girls than boys are gradu- 
ated from our public high schools; and 
each year an increasing number of women 
attend our colleges and universities. 

Some objectors say that women should 
not take part in public affairs because 
they cannot fight if war were necessary. 
In the last two years it has been demon- 
strated that if women have not stood in 
the trenches and fired guns, they have per- 
formed all kinds of work heretofore mon- 
opolized by men. In fact without the 
services of the women this war could not 
be continued. 

There are comparatively few women 
holding elective offices. On account of 
rqual suffrage, there are more serving in 
the western than in the eastern states. As 
woman suffrage spreads and women are 



both voters and constituents, the distribu- 
tion of office will adjust itself. 

So long as people permit the political 
bosses to select and nominate officials on 
account of their spinelessness or to pay 
political debts expert and trained men and 
women stand little chance of recognition. 

The General Federation of Women's 
Clubs through its Civil Service Depart- 
ment is carrying on an active campaign of 
education. The Chairman, Mrs. Fred- 
erick H. Cole, has recently issued a Bul- 
letin of Information in regard to the op- 
portunities for study and the need of ex- 
pert training for office, especially for those 
who are seeking positions in charitable and 
other public institutions. The Civil Serv- 
ice Department is anxious to cooperate 
with all societies who are working toward 
the promotion of training for public service 



A Contract 



THIS AGREEMENT, made at the 
opening- of a new era in municipal 
employment between the City of 
Philadelphia* and its employees, 
resent and prospective, witnesseth: 

That the City of Philadelphia in consid- 
eration of faithful and efficient service 
to be rendered by its employes agrees 

I . I o reward every man and woman in 
its service with just remuneration — 



to allow neither favoritism nor par- 
tisan considerations to influence its 
dealings with its workers, and to be 
guided solely by the actual duties 
and responsibilities of each individ- 
ual in determining his compensation. 
To insure permanency of employment 
to all persons who have joined its 
ranks, and to demand of those offi- 
cials who hold temporarily the high 
places in its government that they re- 



ae extracts fro 

ce "ii U 
L6 16, 1918 

•Substitute the Dame of 
country. 



from an a-Mross delivered before the Third National Con- 
Public Service held in Philadelphia, November 

your village, your city, your county or your 



1917] 



The Public Servant 



243 



spect the tenure of subordinates who 
have entered the service with the 
hope of earning a permanent liveli- 
hood and of working out a life ca- 
reer. 

3. To afford to each employe an oppor- 

tunity to rise in the service in ac- 
cordance with demonstrated merit 
and capacity to perform more re- 
sponsible duties, and to disregard 
all other considerations in advancing 
individuals to higher places. 

4. To make employment in its service a 

mark of distinction, by insisting upon 
standards of efficiency and integrity 
which not only will compare favor- 
ably with those of private establish- 
ments, but will set the pace for em- 
ployments in the commercial world. 

5. To hold out a future to all who enter 

its employ — to offer opportunities for 
the exercise of the highest faculties 
of body, mind and spirit; to make 
possible a career comparable in dig- 
nity and achievement with any that 
awaits the capable and the ambitious 
in fields of private enterprise, and to 
insure such recompense in material 
well-being and popular esteem as the 
loyal service of a lifetime deserves. 
Each employe on his part agrees 

1 . To be efficient — to apply all his 

thought and energy to the tasks be- 
fore him, to be accurate and thorough 
in all his work, and in addition to 
mastering his own duties to prepare 
himself for those of more responsible 
places which he may be called upon 
to fill. 

2. To be loyal — to work in harmony with 

the plans and purposes of his super- 
iors, and to submerge personal pref- 
erences to the interests of public 
welfare. 

3. To be trustworthy — to be fair and im- 

partial in all his dealings with indiv- 
idual citizens; to be true to his ob- 
ligations as a custodian of public 



property ; and to be vigilant and cour- 
ageous as a defender of the people's 
rights and interests against all at- 
tempts to defraud, deceive, or ex- 
ploit. 
4. To be socially-minded — to recognize 
in the city government a co-opera- 
tive community effort directed toward 
social ends, to be animated by a 
genuine desire to serve in the cause 
of community welfare and social 
betterment, and to be imbued with 
a firm faith in the utimate realization 
of civic ideals. 

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the 
City of Philadelphia* and each em- 
ploye in its service from this day 
forth do act in accordance herewith. 

— From "Citizens' Business" Philadelpha Bu- 
reau • of Municipal Research. 



The Public Servant, the monthly bul- 
letin issued by the Society for the Promo- 
tion of Training for Public Service, is 
indispensable to individuals and libraries 
who wish to keep currently informed on 
the following subjects; 

Training for Public Service 

University Service to Communities 
Civil Service Reform 

Professional Training 

Accountants, Engineers, Lawyers, 
Etc. 

Part-time Education 

Welfare Work for Public Employees 

Bibliographies are features of The 
Public Servant. One is printed in the 
June number. 

The papers presented at the National 
Conference on Universities and Public 
Service are published in The Public Serv- 
ant 

Any person or library enrolling as 
member of the Society now is entitled to 
all numbers of The Public Servant pub- 
lished since December, 1916, unless 
membership is to begin from date. Mem- 
bership is usually for the calendar year. 



"Make Democracy Safe in America' ' 

Democracy must be made safe in the world. 

But democracy is not going" to be safe in the world if we merely 
prate about it. It must be based on something more substantial than 
lip service or sentimental attachment. 

Democracy must become an effective agency of the common wel- 
fare. It must justify itself by service. 

American democracy in particular must stop bungling the public 
business. It must become a great protective, educative and service- 
able agency of substantial progress. 

It can never be that if its policies are to be carried out by the un- 
trained and the unskilled. 

Democracy cannot endure if it is based on ignorance or indifference 
or inefficiency. Democracy can be made safe in America through a 
trained public service. The most pressing duty of American democ- 
racy — even now in this war time — is to see that the public educational 
institutions provide for such training. 

You can help do this by becoming a member of the Society for the 
Promotion of Training for Public Service. 



Society for the Promotion of Training for Public Service 
Box 380, Madison, Wisconsin 

Enclosed please find $ for which enroll me as a 

member of the S. P. T. P. S. for the year ending December, 1917. Please send 
me The Public Servant regularly. 



Name _ 
Address 



Associate 


membership 


$3.00 a year. 


Library 


«t 


2.00 " 


Active 


Ci 


5.00 M 


Contributing 


r 


10.00 " 


Donors 


44 


100.00 " 


Founders 




1,000.00 or more 



H 156 82 m 






is 



* ^ v 












^ cv . J 



«fev* 






^°-*> . 



*<?> 










xs ^ 






^ v 



'»• » 0, V V 


















o 4*^ « 



r oK 



^r^ 



-^ •' 






^%«" 



•H 9* : J* \ 9 *yjRp 4 : & % \s 








.V .o-.. *^. 


















A°+ - 



**^»* .0° 



V ^ 



* <* .. * '•"' * u '*> 



,50*. .. 



>• J **, V 



." A 



' 1** 



* - . . • 









1 * * V ^ ^ 






o^ *• 






4* 



v ^ •♦'tot;* «*' ** •* 









^ . * • 






V*^^/ \'?tt'\+* \'Wz\<r \^W'\^ %**« 

!>* rP*..l^L%*«o ^.'^l^V tO*.^^..*©, /,,-./*, 





"0/ : 



.• > ^. 




^T«' ^ ^ *^-* Jf ^ '.^T.' .o' V •--' .«* 



i* *f 



,*"... 



;- *> 



V 












c,^ v ^^ ol 






^ ^ % i 
9 .^^ •■ 










^ < 



' 4 v * 



!<" .' 



i5 "?A - 



V 










a 






4* V ^ 







L ^ o-. # ^ 




; * 



°^ •.. 




^.^ 



o°*/^i:-% 



• ^0 



l h o ^ : 




^ MAY 82 

jej^ N. MANCHESTER, 
^sas^ INDIANA 46962 



•- \/ .-ate-. s«* .-ate- \/ ^ 



-v 









